Downward Spiral
by parakeats
Summary: All she wanted was to live her new healthy life her own way in peace. That was all ruined when a vibrant redhead burst into her village and became her self-declared teacher. Sort of S/I OC
1. Toppling Dominos

Taiyō, by all means, was not a large village. There was a forest on one side of the farming fields, a large meadow on the other. The sun that constantly beamed down was supposedly gentler than what was given to the rest of the Land of Fire, as several merchants passing by had previously stated. There were few monopolies scattered throughout the village, and those that existed were small.

The community was familiar and supportive; there was hardly a moment when one could walk freely through the pathways without having conversations with neighbors. The whole village would help a family raise a child, whether it be supplying food, shelter, or simply babysitting.

Asuka came to like the tiny village as she grew up. It was quaint, completely different from the hustling and bustling of city pedestrians, loud vehicular noises, sirens, and harsh pollution fumes. The citizens genuinely cared for one another, no one had filed a complaint when Asuka was left orphaned at a young age and the responsibility for raising her was left to the rest of the village. They had guided her with open arms, provided her with a place to stay, treated her like family.

When she started showing signs of freaky abilities at the age of six, no one batted an eyelash; they took it into stride. The village elder, Imai Hanako, had proceeded to teach her the basic knowledge of chakra –a strange, yet oddly familiar sounding energy carried in everyone, and around everyone– and had her practicing little control exercises in order keep from exhausting herself.

Hanako-baa had then taken Asuka under her wing, telling her tales of Konoha, where the old woman had grown up until she married a farmer and then moved to Taiyō together. The stories were fascinating, some even ringing certain bells in the back of Asuka's mind, but they remained just stories to her. Not once had they invoked the thought of moving to the Hidden Village, simply because Asuka had like the similarity the peaceful lifestyle held in comparison with her old life.

That didn't mean that Asuka hadn't been somewhat inspired by the idea of ninjas –although the inspiration had taken somewhat of a different path. As she grew into the late teens of her past life, Asuka had been forced to quit strenuous physical activity because her asthma had developed into a more serious case. She had always loved dancing, she had even dreamed of going professional at one point, so she was left sorely heartbroken when her lungs couldn't seem to keep up with her body.

Her new life as Asuka, though, was incredibly healthy. Her body was young enough for basic flexibility conditioning to develop easily, and she genuinely enjoyed strength exercises now that she was capable of accomplishing them. She trained her body to regain the grace and fluidity it had once held in her early last life, and even surpassing that length of elegance.

Physical strength wasn't the only thing Hanako-baa's stories of Konoha inspired. Asuka thirsted for different sorts of knowledge she couldn't access in her sickly life. Chakra was the main one, its familiarity going as far as bothering her because she couldn't quite remember why the word had rung so many bells –not to mention the idea of using life force, in a sense, to do certain things was fascinating. Another one happened to be Hanako-baa's specialty, and she was more than happy to help Asuka expand her expertise on the subject.

That was how Asuka had ended up working in the village apothecary apprenticing Hanako-baa. All day, she was set to work grinding, mixing, and memorizing different herbs and their uses whether it be for medicinal use, perfumes, or even poisons. She was often sent out to either the forest or out in the meadow to pick up a variety of herbs to restock the ever-dwindling supply back at the shop.

Incidentally, being sent out to grab supplies from the forest had been the pebble to start the trail of dominos toppling, because that happened to be the very reason she met Uzumaki Kushina.

…

 **Toppling Dominos**

…

"Hanako-baa, I'm heading out now," Asuka called into the backdoor of the apothecary, where the old woman had stuffed herself into one of the chemical-rooms for experimenting on some of the more dangerous mixtures. She left without hearing a reply, doubting the old bat would have heard her anyways.

As soon as Asuka had left the building, she was ransacked with the noticeably larger presence of what Hanako-baa called Natural Energy, which was essentially just raw chakra that flowed through the natural elements. As far as the old woman knew, there were very few people who could sense the Natural Energy, so Asuka was warned heavily to tread lightly with it.

And it wasn't as if Asuka _hadn't_ heeded Hanako-baa's warning. She usually tried to keep away from pulling on that raw chakra, because part of her wanted to keep this new life she was gifted with. It was a _good_ life, albeit a bit mundane, but the constant worry of looking over her sickly body was one that she had happily discarded for life in Taiyō. But it wasn't as if she could just help the fact that the Natural Energy just seemed to _gravitate_ towards her. She was able to tell the difference between the raw chakra floating around and the diluted chakra belonging to civilians, and a large part of her wanted to see just how far she could take herself both physically and mentally.

"'Morning Asuka-chan," Ruka, a villager in her earlier teens from the family who had mostly taken care of Asuka, called whilst tending to one of the newer babies to grace the village. The baby belonged to the Momomiya family, who were probably out working while Ruka looked after the child. "Are you doing well?"

Asuka paused her step to look up to the teen, before looking down at the infant and pulling her face into a goofy grin. The baby, a boy it looked like, gave a shriek of delight before trying to mirror Asuka's expression. "Good morning, Ruka-nee, little guy. I'm doing well, I'm just about to go out and grab some more roots and stuff. What about you two?"

The idle chat continued for a short while, before they both parted ways. That routine continued for a short while as Asuka continued to walk towards the outskirts of the village, where the stragglers started becoming scarce, and the amount of workers in the field increased. Asuka was thankful for that, because stopping every couple steps to converse with someone new about pointless small talk was exhausting. Frankly, Asuka could do without it, but there wasn't really much she could do unless she wanted to seem ungrateful.

"If it isn't li'l Asuka!" It took a bit of effort to properly school her annoyed grimace into her usual pleasant smile, as Asuka had been hoping to avoid another conversation, but she managed it in time for one of the produce merchants to catch up with her. "Now what're ya up to on this fine day?"

He wasn't an awful man, Asuka knew. Sure, he looked a little rough around the edges, a couple scars here and there that he claimed were from bandits on his journeys to sell Taiyō's goods to other villages, and with a strong, burly body. His copper beard was a little scraggly, and his skin was tanned much like the rest of the villagers'. But Daisuke was a man with a large, gentle heart, who genuinely cared for the wellbeing of the entire village.

"Hanako-baa sent me to gather more supplies for more remedies," Asuka replied, repeating the same sentence for what seemed like the twentieth time that morning. For emphasis, she held up the woven basket filled with various clay and glass jars, the empty echoes of their clinking together drifting up to her ears as she did so. "There are a few requests to fill out, and we were low on most of our basic herbs. Are you out to check up on the crops, Daisuke-san?"

The man gave a low chuckle as his hand rested on top of her head, giving her caramel locks a quick ruffle. Asuka tried to hide her grimace at his familiarity, and mostly ignored the small stab in her gut from the very same action her older brother in her past life used affectionately. It all went unnoticed by Daisuke. "Hanako-sama sure has ya workin' hard, Asuka. I think ya work more than I do!" Asuka shared a false laugh with the man; before he sobered so quickly it almost startled her. "Anyways, I was goin' around warnin' everyone 'bout some rumors spreadin' through the other villages. A Konoha merchant heard the news o' a higher-class group o' bandits ransackin' villages left n' right from some ninja guards or somethin'. Wanted to make sure everyone would tread carefully until they're taken care o'."

Asuka gave the man a nod after his short spiel to show her understanding, although she wasn't all too deterred by the news as she continued towards the woods. "I'm sure everyone appreciates it, Daisuke-san. It's nice that the other villages look out for each other like this. I'll be sure to tell Hanako-baa of this too."

The man halted his steps, wrapping an arm around Asuka's bicep to stop her as well. She looked at him with a mix of annoyance and curiosity, whereas he gave her a stern look. "Listen, Asuka, ya need to be careful out in the woods until they're dealt with. We don't want nothin' happenin' to ya if we can help it –"

"I understand, Daisuke-san," Asuka cut in, with a tight smile. "But I'll be fine. I doubt the bandits will come here; we don't really have anything valuable to offer like the larger villages. If you're really worried, I'll check in with you when I come back."

Daisuke seemed to realize there was no arguing with the seven-year-old girl, because he reluctantly stepped back with a slow nod. "Alright. As soon as ya done, check in with some people so we know ya ain't hurt."

"I will," Asuka quickly nodded, letting her eyes dart to the dark greenery that was still a little ways away. She was feeling more eager to drop Daisuke as his insistence continued. She was, after all, mentally older than he was. So, without further prompting, Asuka pulled her arm from his grasp and tilted her head in a bow. "Thank you for your cautions, Daisuke-san. Have a good day."

She didn't wait for Daisuke's reply to his dismissal, simply opting to continue her trek to her usual herb-gathering niches in the forest.

~…~

The buzz of the forest's Natural Energy almost seemed to harmonize with Asuka's absent humming. The feeling was almost euphoric; the raw chakra was free to nip at her skin, which was more of a tickling feeling than pain, she could feel the energy bouncing all around her. Rather than rejuvenate her, it relaxed her.

The whole experience with Natural Energy almost felt like a drug buzz, which, in turn, meant that Asuka must be high.

She certainly felt high. Powerful. Like nothing could possibly limit her capabilities. She felt physically stronger than she could ever remember; she could take on the world if she had to. She was the artist, the world was her canvas. Nothing could best her. She was unstoppable.

At least, she thought she was.

It wasn't like she really had much to test her abilities, just her past memories and happy lungs. Surely her older brother could have figured something out, but he was living. She was technically dead, although it eased her to think of the situation as vice-versa. It was easier to get over someone's death rather than her own.

For the next couple hours, Asuka spent picking through the contents of the forest, slowly refilling each of those empty jars in her woven basket. Her fingers moved routinely, having been performing this task for nearly over a year, and she was capable of gathering and sorting with little focus on the matter. The majority of her focus was spent trying to sense the different signatures scattered throughout the forest, trying to properly differentiate between raw chakra and the diluted chakra inside of bodies, so it could be as well practiced and easy as her herb gathering.

Of course, the animals didn't give off nearly as big of a signature as humans would, making it harder to tell the difference between that and the Natural Energy, but practicing at the village would have been just as hard with the higher amount of diluted chakra from all of the civilians.

Eventually, Asuka had taken a break from both of her tasks, choosing to sit in a patch of flowers that weren't too well off. There was another little Natural Energy trick that she had been cautiously experimenting on the immature plants with. The energy was so eager to surround her, almost as if it had wanted her to play with it. She did, keeping Hanako-baa's warning in mind, and tried a small experiment on how it would affect photosynthesis on underdeveloped vegetation.

At first it had gone very badly. The burns on her hands and the scorch marks on the crisp forest floor had given hint of that. It had taken her a couple more tries and burns before Asuka came up with the hypothesis that perhaps it was because the energy she gathered was stilled, not constantly moving like it always was. Trial and error was a big method in Asuka's experiment –so much that she had taken to wearing gloves as to not give suspicion to Hanako-baa when she had come back with more burns on her skin, although the missing burn anesthetic paste was probably enough of a hint already– and she was really thankfully when she finally got some less explosive results.

The Natural Energy would lazily circle above the underdeveloped vegetation at the beckon of her hands –kind of like how Asuka's nephew from her old life imagined conjuring a magic spell would be– and form a glow that looked and imitated sunlight. That imitation sunlight in turn, would jumpstart the photosynthesis process inside the plants around it, allowing them to form the chemicals needed for growing.

It was a fascinating process to watch, Asuka decided, as she sluggishly swirled her wrist movements to guide the raw chakra around the patch of wilting flowers she was sitting in. The flowers were slowly starting to perk up from their previously shriveled forms; the glow had cast dancing demonic shadows across Asuka's body, and watching them was almost hypnotizing.

And then there was a splash of crimson; a scream tore through the silence in the woods.

…

 **I gave in. Here is the first chapter of Downward Spiral; hopefully this will turn out like I hope it will!**

 **Please feel free to drop a review and tell me what your thoughts are, what you think could go better, etc…**

 **Thanks, and see you next time!**


	2. Day One

She knew they were in the other room, but there were no murmurs slipping past the door. Everything was silent, save the occasional pant from Futaaimaru as he rested just a little off to the side of her futon at the command of his partner, and it was killing her.

It just kept playing back over and over in her mind. She colossally screwed herself over, trying to bite off way more than she could ever hope to chew. Yet part of her still couldn't help but feel that she _could have_ done something at least more than what she already had. No, she should have been able to do more. Things just went wrong.

She underestimated the situation, Asuka decided.

But there was a small part of her, a part that sounded kind of like her older brother, that knew there was nothing she could have done. Staying out of the way, perhaps, would have been a much better start than what she had done. Instead, she had been foolish. She had been overpowered. She had been essentially useless. A hindrance.

And now she couldn't even feel anything. The Natural Energy that had once buzzed around her was still. She couldn't even sense the overbearing diluted chakra that belonged to the three extra guests the next room over. Even sensing the beast dog would have been a step up. It was agitating, because she didn't know what was going on, where anything was. She felt blind.

She felt weak.

Asuka quietly scoffed to herself, gaining the attention of Futaaimaru. The full-grown ninken tilted his head to the side at the noise, before picking himself up and padding closer to where Asuka lay. Before she could question the dog –not like she'd get an answer, though– Futaaimaru had settled down _on top_ of her.

The weight was unexpected, forcing a slightly strangled gasp to escape from Asuka's lips. An open mouth was not the best thing with a dog taller than herself, Asuka discovered, because she quickly had to spit out a mouthful of the ninken's ashy fur. Apparently satisfied with her reaction, Futaaimaru rested his head on his paws with no intention of getting up.

Still, Asuka buried her fingers into the overgrown fur ball's coat.

Perhaps ten minutes later, Kushina had made her appearance.

A snort of laughter was what alerted Asuka of the older teen's presence, startling her out of her internal moping. Asuka felt a mild flare of irritation at the woman, because she had done something to her sensing abilities, but looked at her to hear what she had to say regardless.

Her vibrant red hair was tied back into a ponytail, her hitai-ate resting casually against her neck, opposed to around her forehead like Asuka was accustomed to seeing. Her expression was schooled, much to Asuka's aggravation, because she wanted to know what the teen's team had discussed with Hanako-baa. Kushina leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed, one finger absentmindedly tapping the crook of her elbow as if contemplating what to say.

Finally, Kushina opened her mouth. What the teen said was not something Asuka had wanted to hear. In fact, Asuka would have been perfectly happy if she could simply forget her three-day acquaintance with the ninjas. It seemed that her fate, though, had changed drastically since meeting the redhead that first day.

"You're coming to Konoha with us."

…

 **Day One**

…

"Jeez, kid, you scream loud."

Asuka, slack-jawed from shock, frantically observed the newcomers. They had approached so quickly and silently; she hadn't noticed them until they were _literally_ right in front of her. Now that she could sense them, she realized that their signatures were nothing alike to anyone from Taiyō. Their chakras were enormous compared to the village civilians; it was perplexing as to how they were able to sneak up on her like that. Despite that though, these three people, however talented they were, were strangers.

They were a group of three people, not counting the dog that was _bigger than she was_ , each in an approximately different stage of teenager, with one female in the trio. A female with shockingly long and very red hair.

With that being said, though, they each had a varying stage of weird to their appearances.

One of the boys had strange red marks on his cheeks that looked kind of like claw marks would, with sharp eyes and wild brown hair. He had a strange long sleeved shirt that looked to be made of fishnet stockings, with an ugly looking vest over top, and loose black pants. The overgrown fur ball sat obediently at his side, which led Asuka to make the assumption that the dog was his.

The other boy looked to be the youngest of the three, although still much older than Asuka herself. His hair was black and shortly cropped, his light blue eyes softening more feminine features on his face. He was what Asuka would describe as a classic 'pretty boy' without the asshole side –as far as she was aware, anyways. He, too, wore one of those ugly vests, but wore a plain black turtleneck underneath it. His legs were covered with shorts that ended just below his knees.

And the girl, well, she was right in front of Asuka's face.

"Hey, kid," the redhead started in a curious drawl. "What was that?"

Asuka scooted back a couple inches to keep distance between her and the strangers, Daisuke's warning about bandits briefly flashing in her mind. She immediately regarded the three with suspicion, her fingers unconsciously curling around her supply basket's handle as if it were a safety line.

The redheaded woman took in Asuka's reaction silently, like her two associates, and opted to stay completely still in her crouched position.

"Who the hell are you?" Asuka demanded, and her free hand twitched slightly. The Natural Energy twitched with it.

The teen with the dog scratched his cheek, right over one of those red marks. "Should a kid your age really be using that language?"

Asuka sent him a dark scowl, and he raised a single eyebrow in return. "I don't need people telling me what I can and can't do. Now answer my question."

A low grunt came from the dog's mouth. The pretty boy sighed.

"Listen, we don't want any trouble. I'm Nanase Taiki," the pretty boy said. "We're ninja."

"Is that supposed to mean anything to me?"

The redhead snorted, and when Asuka looked at her, her eyes showed amusement. "We're Konoha ninja, kid. I'm Uzumaki Kushina, and that one over there is Inuzuka Hige." Kushina paused at the insistent bark from the overgrown fuzz ball. "Futaaimaru is Hige's ninken partner."

"That still doesn't mean anything to me," Asuka countered, earning a raised eyebrow from the other two as well. "For all I know, you could just say you're ninja. I want credentials. You guys get those, right?"

Hige pointed to his forehead, where a metal plate with a leaf symbol was tied around it like a hippy headband. "That's enough credentials for you," he sniffed, crossing his arms. Asuka shot him a look, and he rolled his eyes. "Are you always such a hardass, kid?"

Asuka didn't grace him an answer, instead looking expectantly to Kushina and Taiki. The two shared a look she couldn't read, but eventually she got to see credentials. Even Hige relented, muttering something about the similarity to getting checked at the Konoha gates by the guards.

"Now, are you going to answer my question?" Kushina asked. Asuka assumed she was still asking about how she was manipulating the Natural Energy ten minutes before, but she decided to play clueless about it. Kushina didn't seem eager to play along. "I'm a trained kunoichi, don't act dumb. What was that glow?"

"Photosynthesis," Asuka commented dryly. Their boldness agitated her. Who were they to suddenly bust in and interrogate her? What right did they have? She wasn't a child they could just order around. "Listen," she said, cutting into whatever Kushina was going to retort with. Asuka stood up from the ground and wiped her clothing down, while she continued to speak, "This has been wonderful and all, but I should be getting back home now. If you're going to do something about that supposed bandits rumor that would be absolutely fantastic. Bye."

They let her go after she plucked her basket up from the ground and stomped off towards the proper path heading to Taiyō, or at least that was what she had initially thought until she focused on their signature contrast between the raw chakra. Asuka huffed in annoyance and casually changed direction to see if they were actually tailing her. Six different times she tried this, each time she could find them –mostly Kushina's chakra– if she concentrated hard enough. It was absolutely ridiculous.

Asuka tightened her grip on the basket's handle, the jars bumping against each other from swings that were probably choppier than they should have been. Finally, she whirled around, her caramel hair whipping around her head in an unruly fashion.

"Okay!" she shouted into the open air. "What the fuck do you dips want from me?"

Below her, a little patch of grass started sizzling.

She continued to glare in the general direction where the Konoha ninjas were hiding. Asuka didn't remember ever getting this frustrated since she was given this new life. Things were usually lenient to go her way, in fact, it almost felt as if she were given everything she ever wanted after struggling to even live in her past life. There was hardly anyone in Taiyō that got on each other's nerves, because the community was so supportive and giving. Frustration was a rare feeling during Asuka's seven years in Taiyō.

Crossing her arms around her body, the basket hitting her hip was accompanied by the clanking sounds of the jars as she did so, she continued to wait. Her expression turned sour as the seconds ticked by, and she had half a mind to march back over to where they were hiding and yank them out.

That thought was quickly discarded when the furry beast tackled her down flat on her stomach. Asuka held still as the black wet nose prodded the back of her head with a firm gentleness she likened to perhaps curiosity, although she was never the best at observing what a dog was feeling. When the dog –Futaaimaru, Kushina had called him– had stopped sniffing her and settled for dropping his weight to keep her body down, Asuka lifted her head and propped it against the forest floor to see the three approaching ninja.

"Thanks for this," Asuka quipped, looking specifically towards Hige, who had his mouth quirked up in a smirk. "This is _exactly_ what I needed this morning. I'm sure my back will appreciate this tomorrow."

"Aren't you just adorable, kid?" Hige remarked, his lip curled back just enough for Asuka to catch sight of a fang. Whether that was a warning gesture, Asuka was unsure. "First with the 'photosynthesis', and now you're suddenly able to sense our chakra? Have you ever thought of becoming a ninja?"

Asuka furrowed her eyebrows at his question, sensing an underlying tone. Was he trying to threaten her or something? Maybe some kind of super-confidential ninja test of some kind? Regardless, she answered truthfully.

"No."

Hige's eyebrow rose again, but he accepted her statement with a nod regardless. Futaaimaru seemed to receive the unspoken command, and suddenly the weight of the overgrown fur ball was lifted from her back. Asuka let out a groan of relief, much to the amusement of the other three.

They waited for her to pick herself up from the ground, before Kushina took over the conversation.

"So you're untrained?" she questioned curiously. Asuka hesitantly shook her head. "Who taught you what you know, then?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Asuka shot back, lifting her chin just the slightest so she was looking down her nose as she was looking up to them. She made sure they knew she wasn't going to answer any more questions by her tone, unless she heard something to make her relent.

Pretty boy, Taiki his name was, sighed from behind his two partners. He seemed to be preparing to speak, but Hige had beaten him to it.

"Talent like yours just doesn't come out of nowhere. Are you sure you don't want to be a ninja?"

Kushina let out something caught between a gasp and a laugh, effectively gaining the attention from the others around her.

"You can be _my_ student!" the redhead blurted. Her tone had a sudden intensity to it, it almost seemed that she was about to forget the people surrounding her and go off on a monologue. "Minato is always off with his student, so it only seems fair! I even bet that with your potential you could be considered just as much a genius as Kakashi-kun! If I'm teaching you, you'll become an unstoppable force, dattebane!"

The sudden diversion from the initial conversation was an incredibly sharp turn. So much, that Asuka had to take a minute to fully process what had just happened. The other two seemed just as surprised. "You don't even know my name!" Asuka protested indignantly, frantically searching her mind for a reason to stop the redhead in her tracks. "How do you suppose you'd be able to even train me, assuming that I was even interested?"

"Well, what's your name then?"

Asuka recoiled, hoping that would have deterred Kushina from her newfound idea. Asuka hadn't wanted to give out her name, but she supposed it was only fair, because they had told their names first. "Hitsugaya Asuka," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. "But this doesn't mean I want to be trained by _you_ , much less anyone else!"

Kushina leapt forward and grasped both of Asuka's hands in hers. "This is so exciting, 'ttebane! I know I introduced myself as Kushina earlier, but you can just call me shishou, or sensei, Asuka-chan!"

"But –I just said…I don't want to be a ninja!" Asuka sputtered through Kushina's excited ramblings. She helplessly looked around for a distraction as the redhead tugged on her hands animatedly, but Kushina's two teammates didn't seem to be moving to assist her anytime soon.

Hige, instead, snickered. "Sorry, kid, but at times like this, Kushina develops a sort of selective hearing."

Asuka shot him a glare, before looking over to Taiki. "Stop this menace, pretty boy!"

Hige snorted as Taiki's face turned a shade of red almost as violent as Kushina's hair. Asuka grimaced, setting the thought that calling the young ninja that to his face was a bad idea, in the back of her mind to deal with later. She halfheartedly tried to tug her hands out of Kushina's firm grip, but eventually surrendered to wait for when the redhead was finished.

"Look," Asuka said, as Kushina finally started calming down from her deviation from the original conversation. She glanced through the trees, where an early afternoon sun looked to be peaking through. "I really have to get going now, people might be thinking I'm dead right now from these supposed bandits, so it would probably be best for me to get back and tell them they don't have to cremate me yet. Please stop following me so I can actually take the proper path home."

She _hoped_ and _prayed_ that was enough to finally separate from the trio of nosy ninja. Asuka was very content to return to normal life without their exuberance, and this unwanted delay was draining.

Taiki sighed. "Look, Hitsugaya, there was a reason why we approached you in the first place," he explained. It was Asuka's turn to raise her eyebrow, eager to finally be enlightened on the ludicrousness of the situation. "That 'rumor' you heard is true, and we've managed to track the bandits around this area. We were following to make sure you got back safely."

Asuka gave a disbelieving stare. "And the interrogation?"

"We had to confirm that you weren't a threat," Kushina jumped in, surprisingly sobered with a serious expression. "It's not unheard of someone as young as you being capable of being an A-class bandit. Some of their files were dropout ninjas from academies, so we needed to double check your status as a civilian, despite your chakra talents."

Asuka pursed her lips into a frown. "I don't see why you couldn't have just explained that when we initially met."

"You really don't know the workings of a ninja, do you, kid?" Hige intercepted.

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Obviously not. The only reason I know as much as I do about this fancy ninja shit is because of Hanako-baa."

"Hanako?" Kushina repeated.

"Yeah, she came from Konoha originally."

She watched as the three of them exchanged a quick look, and Taiki spoke. "You don't suppose we could meet uh…Hanako-san, do you?"

"Only if you're not going to kill her."

"We'll only take care of her if she's made an offence," Hige answered with a single shoulder shrug, causing Asuka to sigh.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," she replied with her own shrug. She recovered her basket, thankful that it hadn't taken too much damage from the demon fuzz ball, and then walked straight through the trio of ninjas towards her village. "Come on, it's this way."

"That's completely opposite from the way you were heading," Taiki pointed out as she passed him and Kushina.

"Obviously," Asuka countered without looking back. She didn't bother checking to see if they were following. "I had to make sure you weren't the bandits."

"Yeah? And what would you have done if we were the bandits? A bit of photosynthesis?" Hige sarcastically remarked. Asuka's lips twitched.

She held up her woven basket. "I'm sure I could have figured something out. You'd be surprised with what nature conjures."

"You sound confident."

Asuka didn't grace Hige with a reply, simply choosing instead to continue on the journey back to Taiyō.

~…~

If the trio of ninja were surprised about the social community in Taiyō, they didn't show it. Kushina perhaps looked a little more openly curious as several villagers stopped to converse with Asuka, and complied with her easy dismissal towards the three strangers, but didn't make any comments on it. Hige was the one who made open comments about the easygoing and familiar nature of Taiyō, but other than that it was a fairly silent trek back to the apothecary.

"Hanako-baa, I'm back. Sorry for being a bit late, but we have some guests," Asuka called into the shop as she stepped inside. She moved to the counter with ease, placing her basket on the countertop before pulling out the newly stocked glass jars. She then fluently slid over the countertop, pulling her child-sized apron off of the hook hanging near the back doorway, before gathering one of the mortar and pestles stacked on one of the shelves underneath the counter.

Her hands moved swiftly, snagging the order book and opening it to the most recent requests of remedies. She allowed a brief glance towards the Konoha ninjas, who were already scattered around the shop and looking at the previously made products with mild curiosity, before sliding her apron over her head and tying up the back.

Kushina had wandered over to Asuka's workstation, and the young girl braced herself for another random outburst from the redhead. Thankfully, Kushina just seemed interested in what Asuka was grinding.

"Do you usually complete orders by yourself, Asuka-chan?" Kushina asked, taking in the order book and various amount of jars filled with different roots, leaves, and berries.

Asuka nodded, giving a slight hum in confirmation. Her eyes remained on her work, though, because a slight mistake could be fatal. She pulled out three small leaves from one jar, before reaching under the counter to pull out a small vile of clear liquid. "Hanako-baa started training me around a year ago, and only recently have I been allowed to work on the more hazardous mixtures on my own. This one is a muscle relaxant, meant for the farmers who do strenuous physical work out in the fields. They rub the salve onto their sore muscles at night, and by morning they don't feel any stiffness that they would feel otherwise," Asuka explained while adding specific quantities of the liquid and leaves into the mortar. "This one's rather simple, with a very small margin of lethality in the scenario of overdosing certain ingredients."

She seemed to have gained Taiki's interest sometime in her explanation as well, as he had gravitated towards the counter as well.

Kushina nodded intently. "Just the intelligence I'd expect from my student."

Asuka ignored the redhead.

"So that's what you were doing in the forest?" Taiki asked. Asuka nodded. He glanced around the shop once more. "Are your parents here, too?"

"No. They died when I was really young. Now I mostly stay with Hanako-baa."

Taiki grimaced, as if he regretted his question. "Sorry about that."

Asuka simply shrugged indifferently. It wasn't as if she really viewed them as her parents anyways. "That's fine. I was young."

"You don't miss them, then?" Kushina questioned, her eyes switching between Asuka's face and the mortar she was working in. While Asuka wasn't really paying much attention to her guests, she sensed something extra she couldn't quite place in Kushina's tone.

"Should I? It's not like I knew them." Getting over the loss of one set of parents from her previous life was already enough for her. Besides, she already had the rest of Taiyō's citizens that seemed to feel responsible for her wellbeing. They were substitute enough for parents.

"I guess that's one way of thinking," Hige remarked, accompanied by a yip from Futaaimaru. Asuka honestly nearly forgot about his presence entirely.

"Hanako-baa, are you in the back rooms?" She wasn't graced with an immediate answer, instead hearing the steady footsteps approaching from the back door. Asuka quickly finished up with her paste, pouring it into a clean ceramic pot that had been previously labeled with an ink brush. "About time, you came around. I thought you maybe died back there."

The old woman had gray hairs framing her surprisingly young face, her narrowed brown eyes landing on Asuka's form with a scoff. "Like you're one to talk, little brat. 'I'll be back before lunch' my ass. You're on double time for that."

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Please, as if I could help getting stalked by your precious Konoha ninjas." It was easy to fall back into a bantering routine with the old woman. "They're here to see you, by the way."

"Why the hell did you bring back strays?" Hanako-baa barked spiritedly, placing the tray of glass vials filled with liquid onto the counter that she had previously been carrying. The woman's eyes immediately moved to scan the three from Konoha. "And why the hell were you all stalking this brat?"

"One of the matters we wanted to discuss with you," Kushina started out in what Asuka liked to call a 'professional mask', something that still surprised her to see on the female teen. "Was Asuka-chan's chakra abilities."

Hanako-baa shot Asuka an accusatory look, before returning her gaze back to Kushina. Asuka grimaced, knowing that a lecture was sure to come (she was an _adult_ dammit, she didn't _need_ people lecturing her!) and opted to start up a new order while they talked.

Her original plan of eavesdropping was unfortunately quickly put to a stop when Hanako-baa had taken the three ninja and the beast dog into one of her back rooms for more privacy. Asuka stared at the mortar with a bit of a sneer, vaguely annoyed that she wasn't included in a conversation about _her_. She continued to grind the herbs with more force than before.

Kushina and her team didn't end up staying too long. It was perhaps a ten-minute conversation before they headed back out, presumably to continue tracking the bandits. The redhead hadn't left without dropping another high-spirited declaration about Asuka being her student, much to the young caramel haired girl's misfortune. It appeared that Kushina hadn't forgotten her avowal on a whim like Asuka had hoped.

The rest of the day was spent in the apothecary with Hanako-baa –a lecture about going behind the old hag's back and practicing with raw chakra being unacceptable behavior, had happened over the length of the day– while dealing with drop in customers and filling out orders of previous customers. It had turned disappointingly uneventful in Asuka's opinion, ever since the ninjas had left.

Asuka was in a sour mood when she went to bed that night, oddly feeling unsatisfied with her day. As she drifted to sleep, she wondered if Kushina and her team had managed to deal with the bandits and were already heading back to Konoha. She almost wished they weren't.

…

 **Chapter two, everyone! A big thanks to all those who reviewed, favorite, and followed! It means a lot to me to know how much support I have for Downward Spiral already. This is about twice the length as the first chapter, and I'm aiming to get the rest of my chapters around this length, give or take.**

 **We're getting a little more into our mini Taiyō arc. Don't worry; we'll get to Konoha approximately two chapters from now. For now, I've got to lay down some parameters regarding Asuka, her relationships, and abilities.**

 **Here's a some translations regarding my Inuzuka clan OC's, if any of you were wondering:**

 **Hige –whiskers**

 **Futaai –dark indigo**

 **And as for review replies:**

 **Just Passing By (Guest) –thank you very much for being my first reviewer! I gave a little squeal when I saw the notification. I hope Asuka will remain to your liking, and I hope you enjoy more to come!**

 **Rboooks –thank you! Hopefully this update is to your taste, and you'll continue to follow Asuka's adventures!**

 **Llyrica –Well, let's pray that this will keep being interesting for you! Thank** _ **you**_ **for reading and taking time to write your encouraging review!**

 **SomeRandomPerson (Guest) –I'm glad that my writing came across easily to you! That's one of my main goals as a writer, so it's a huge relief to hear that! I have a couple plans for a pairing, but it won't be until** _ **much**_ **later, seeing as Asuka's only seven at the moment. But who really knows where pairings will take us as we see how different relationships get developed, huh? Thanks for your review!**

 **I hope you all enjoyed this update; please give me some more feedback if you have the time!**

 **See you next time!**


	3. Day Two

By all means, Asuka was not an early riser. Occasionally, yes, she would be awake with the farmers at the crack of dawn, but more times than not she would stay tucked into her small futon in the otherwise empty room. Today, it seemed, was a day she would join the sun in its early rising.

Nightmares, or memories would be the proper terminology for it, weren't as reoccurring as they were the first couple months she became Asuka, but they still occasionally happened. She would see herself, her old disgustingly sickly self, with her brother, niece, and nephew. Sometimes they would all be together, sometimes she would be babysitting. With her niece, Asuka often had what she liked to call a 'Netflix night', which involved a ton of junk food and binge watching while her nephew napped.

Most of the shows that Asuka had watched were forgotten, but even she could indistinctly remember her niece's favorite anime about ninjas and chakra. The similarity between what she could remember from the few episodes she watched and from her niece's rants were uncanny with the world she lived in now. Yet, Asuka hadn't found it unsettling. She wasn't a part of the 'ninja world', so it hardly concerned her here in Taiyō.

One of her legs was swinging haphazardly out of the open window. Asuka relaxed at the morning chill as it nipped her uncovered skin, the adolescent and animate light from the rising sun slowly inching up her body as the minutes passed by. She could spot several civilians slowly trudging about the streets of Taiyō, heading to work in the fields, or making the usual dairy deliveries, or simply meandering about to enjoy the mellow morning. Asuka was unnoticed from her perch on the windowsill by those walking about the streets, adding to the peaceful atmosphere of the early morning.

She stayed there for several more minutes, thoughtlessly playing with the Natural chakra that gathered at her fingertips. She made the small amount of energy expand and compress, always keeping it moving as to not make another accidental explosion. It heated her fingers against the chill, yet continued to remain as just a soothing warm buzz.

It didn't take long for Asuka to get restless. While watching the sunrise was nice, she never was a person to just sit still. That was why school had been hell for her in her last life, and why it was such a blessing that the only schooling she needed now was learning to read and write from Hanako-baa. Of course, Asuka would indulge in her curiosities, but never once was she stuck in a desk being bored half to death with information she didn't really even need to know. It's not like it her schooling took her very far, anyways, considering that she never made it past thirty.

With one last glance towards the early sunlight, Asuka jumped back into her room and made to move towards her futon. The blankets were messy, but she hadn't really brought herself to care as she rolled the futon up and stowed it away in the closet. Asuka let her eyes scan her barren room, making sure the floor was clear before starting a basic warm-up.

Her body felt stiff at first, and her back was indeed sore from where she was tackled by Hige's overgrown fur ball the morning before. That eventually melted away as her muscles woke up from the small set of jumping jacks and then the routine of stretches Asuka went over. Simple lunges, turned out squats, and toe touching had ultimately extended to sitting in an over-split for each different split, and backbends where she would grab onto her ankles from behind (a pleasantly easy thing to do in a young, healthy body).

Asuka then went through a set of strengthening exercises, for her hamstrings so she could lift her legs up to her head without the help from her arms, her back so she could move fluidly through various acrobatic walkovers, her calves for turning, rising, and jumping, and finally, her arms for handstands and other various tricks. Those were just from what she could remember from back before she had to quit dancing, and Asuka couldn't help that rush of satisfaction when she was capable of all of those things in this body.

By the time Asuka had finished her strength workout, she was coated sweat. Her hair stuck to her face, and as Asuka tied it up she thought that, in hindsight, it probably would have been a good idea to tie it up before getting sweaty. There wasn't really much she could do for that now, though, as she continued on with practicing ballet exercises while using her windowsill as a barre.

Dancing was something that always made Asuka feel at home, both in her past life and now. She felt as if there was nothing she couldn't truly accomplish. The euphoria she experienced from leaping, jumping, and turning across the floor was greater than manipulating chakra could ever feel. When dancing, Asuka didn't have to worry about putting on a pleasant façade; it was just her body and the floor with nothing to act as a wall in between. Dancing was when Asuka could feel peaceful, adrenaline, and sadness all in one. It was almost like a drug.

So, without further ado, Asuka pushed away from the windowsill and took up the center of the room. And then she danced.

…

 **Day Two**

…

Hanako-baa had left to go take care of some business (what the business was, the old bag hadn't mentioned), which left Asuka to take care of the apothecary in her absence. It was obscenely dull, although nothing out of the ordinary. When she didn't have to deal with restocking the different salves, perfumes, and medicines, she spent reading some of the older books Hanako-baa had. The books weren't necessarily anything interesting either, most of them Asuka had already read through –especially the one on plants and their uses, which happened to be the one she was currently skimming through.

Business wasn't particularly busy that morning, as most of the week's requests were filled out and finished as of yesterday, which hadn't left Asuka with much to do. Experimenting could only go so far (she had yet to find the proper roots, and definitely didn't have access to chemicals, to recreate a version of LSD –for ego purposes, not for usage), especially without proper supervision. Asuka was in no way a professional when dealing with different natural-made remedies, so continuing to experiment without help could lead to disastrous results. Even Asuka wasn't _that_ thick headed.

Which was why she studied. So she couldn't make mistakes, so she wouldn't have to continue to rely on Hanako-baa, or _anyone_ else for that matter.

Idly throughout the rest of the morning, Asuka took notes on which herbs and flowers needed to be restocked again, a frown tugging on her lips as she realized she would more than likely have to go out fairly soon to be able to fill out some of the new orders. Most of the plants were for more common uses, such as the muscle relaxant salve and anti-bacterial paste, so thankfully it wouldn't take too long. Well it wouldn't take too long if there weren't any Konoha disturbances again.

For the first time that day, Asuka found herself thinking of her chance and annoyance of an encounter the morning before. The vibrant-haired Kushina had proclaimed Asuka to be her student. It seemed that the teen wasn't actually as serious as previously indicated, as there wasn't even a goodbye from the team. She wondered if that was a usual thing for ninjas, come to a village, terrorize and harass the civilians a little, complete their mission, and then leave without another whisper. That being said, Kushina's team was the only group of ninjas that she had actually met.

And good riddance, Asuka thought.

Asuka took a quick glance out the window to gauge the position of the sun (unfortunately, clocks were not a luxury in Taiyō), and decided that it wouldn't do the shop any harm if she were to go out and gather more roots. There didn't seem to be any customers coming in any time soon, so Asuka was left with hardly anything to do anyways.

It was nice, being handed responsibility like this. Hanako-baa seemed to recognize Asuka's higher maturity level compared to other children in Taiyō, and was willing to relinquish some of the apothecary's reigns to her after a bit of training. Frankly, Asuka was relieved. If she were continuously treated like a child –well, even more like a child– she would have gone insane. She needed to have a somewhat adult-like structure in her life, because she mentally still felt like an adult who was living a relatively normal life in the twenty-first century. Having control over the apothecary, no matter how small, was an easing step into transitioning through her new life.

Just as Asuka was gathering all the necessary jars for another trip, the door to the apothecary slammed open. She let out a yelp when one of the jars slipped through her fingers and shattered on the floor, as a grudgingly familiar voice announced, "Good afternoon my prized student, 'ttebane!"

Asuka's heart stopped beating for a moment after registering the presence of the energetic redhead, who had apparently not left the village yet. An awkward noise escaped her throat that was caught between a groan and an exasperated sigh, and she quickly ducked down behind the counter to gather up the shards of glass scattered across the floor. Of course, she knew that Kushina had already seen her, so there was no point in hiding, but a small edge of denial to pair along with the excuse of cleaning up the glass had helped with desperately holding onto that small part of her sanity.

"Good afternoon, Kushina-san, Hige-san, Taiki-san," Asuka greeted monotonously in reply as the redhead's three teammates' presence entered the shop just a little behind Kushina. "Is there anything you need, or are you just generally nuisances in my life?"

There was a quiet scoff in a presumably male tone (Hige), before the sound of steps started approaching.

"Aren't you just a general nuisance, kid?"

"Well, judging by the fact that you're still here, it means that the bandits haven't been subdued. In my opinion, that equates to incompetence, whereas I've actually been doing my job."

A flash of heat waved off of Hige's form –a reaction Asuka likened to anger–, which was quickly absorbed by the raw chakra circulating through the air. Her lips twitched at the thought of how quickly she managed to get under his skin, probably a bad decision considering he could kill her before she blinked, and had to hold back a snicker to avoid more backlash from the teen ninja. It was lucky, she supposed, that one of Hige's teammates had cut in before the snarky comments could escalate into more.

"We were wondering if Hanako-san was in, Hitsugaya," Taiki had interrupted Hige from the sneer he had on his lips.

Asuka quickly finished brushing the last of the shards into a makeshift dustpan, before popping back up from behind the counter. Her eyes dully scanned each of their appearances, as well as a brief glance to the dog, before replying, "Hanako-baa's out on business. If you need anything, I can do my best to assist."

She ignored the snort that came from Hige (and the dog), and continued to stock her basket with jars whilst waiting for a reply, or for them to leave. She preferred the latter, personally, but fate didn't seem to care too much about her preferences.

Kushina was the one to speak, once again wearing her serious face. "Is there a possibility that you can make a remedy to regain the sense of smell? We've run into a bit of trouble, and our Inuzuka trackers are useless without their noses."

Futaaimaru barked indignantly as Hige snarled at her. "Why don't _you_ track them down, if you're so high and mighty, _princess_?"

Kushina flushed an unsightly red, and it barely took a second for her to lash out at Hige's irritated form. Asuka didn't pay much attention to what the two were arguing about, instead looking expectantly at Taiki when he sighed in exasperation. She would have preferred Kushina and Hige to take their squabble outside, but the outcome most likely would have been taxing if she were to intervene.

"What seems to be wrong with the dog's sense of smell?" Asuka questioned Taiki, who seemed to want to get down to business just as much as she did. His light blue eyes drifted to where she leaned against the counter. "I mean, like, what disrupted his sense of smell, do you know?"

Taiki pursed his lips, mirroring Asuka's stance. Kushina and Hige continued their argument in the background. Thankfully it hadn't gotten physical yet, but Asuka always had that paralytic powder gathering dust under the counter if Taiki didn't feel any incentive to stop the two.

"We're not entirely sure," he started out. Asuka furrowed her eyebrows to concentrate on his next words, hoping that she'd be able to figure out the assailant to Futaaimaru's smell. She had always loved a good puzzle. "We were able to track a smaller group of the bandits, but somehow they managed to get the upper hand. Some kind of white dust was flung up in the air, and even _I_ felt my nose and eyes burning. I can't imagine what it would be like for Hige and Futaaimaru, considering their heightened senses. Could it have been some kind of powdered root, do you think?"

Asuka frowned in thought, pausing a moment before speaking her thoughts out loud. "Did it have a smell that you could remember? Did it smell kind of flowery, earthy…bitter?"

Taiki didn't answer for a moment.

"No, I don't remember any of those," Kushina pitched in. Asuka was mildly surprised that she stopped arguing with Hige to contribute her thoughts. One glance at the Inuzuka showed he was slightly miffed, but seemed to recognize that their bickering wasn't as important. "It was really pungent, and kind of smelled like urine, but stronger."

"Oh." Asuka's eyebrows shot up at that. Her mind was racing now as her face took on a contemplative look.

"You have any ideas?" Taiki asked.

"It's probably ammonia that you smelt," Asuka elaborated. She was a bit of a chemistry buff in her old life, although it was rare that she had the actual opportunity to work with chemicals. It always seemed to flare up her asthma when she did. "But Taiki-san mentioned it was a kind of dust…" She frowned, drumming her fingers against the counter. "So, there's a possibility that it could be ammonia bicarbonate. Its catalyst would have to be fast acting to release the ammonia gas. That could explain why Hige-san and Futaaimaru are so irritated. Ammonia is an extreme irritant to animal senses."

When Asuka finished off her vocal musings, the three Konoha ninja looked baffled. It was then that she received a slight reminder that she probably shouldn't be as knowledgeable about the topic as she was, coming from a small village, and being as physically young as her current body was.

"It's also used for baking," Asuka put out, because it had been in China before it was banned.

"Okay. How long until we can smell again?" Hige pressed, his sharp eyes narrowed and red from irritation.

The youngest of the group cocked her head to the side, before motioning to Futaaimaru. "Do you think he'll mind if I check something out? It could really depend. If the dosage was strong, then it could probably take quite a few hours, and if the dosage was enhanced, then it could possibly be up to twelve hours before you could smell properly again."

Asuka wasn't a genius when it came to enhancing things with chakra, but she occasionally caught Hanako-baa toying with her own chakra supply around some specific salves and remedies. Asuka theorized that if chakra were to be fused into a reactant of some kind, whether it is a paste, liquid, or inhalant, the natural life from the chakra would boost the reactions to make it more powerful. She figured that chakra was, essentially, a part of nature, and most things in this somewhat pre-industrialized era were made from natural means as well.

Hige looked particularly perturbed at Asuka's exposition, but nodded towards Futaaimaru. "You okay with the kid checking you, bud?"

Futaaimaru gave a grouchy sounding howl in response, although he padded towards Asuka and planted his oversized furry bottom down in front of her nevertheless. She gave the beast a tight-lipped smile before tentatively dropping to her knees and gently cupping each side of his muzzle to stabilize any possible movement he could make while she analyzed him. It also worked as an extra boost for protection if the furry beast made the decision to attack her again.

Asuka eased her mind away from her guests in order to allow herself to focus on the light buzz of chakra swirling through the air. Her other senses seemed to dull as the raw chakra became more apparent to her, as well as the easily depicted diluted chakra belonging to the three ninjas and Futaaimaru. It took her a couple minutes to specifically lock onto Futaaimaru's chakra, everything else blending into the background. Asuka allowed herself to become accustomed to the ninken's energy to further the chance of being able to differentiate his and the possible chakra-enhanced ammonium bicarbonate lodged up his nostrils. It was particularly difficult to focus solely onto Futaaimaru's nose, Asuka found. It required more concentration that she was used to –it was almost as if she were a parasite trying to latch onto the diluted chakra and reign it in with a lasso, opposed to how the raw chakra obediently bowed to her will– but she eventually managed to glance upon minute traces of chakra that was entirely different from Futaaimaru's dotting the inside of his nostrils.

The toll of her intense focus had hit Asuka hard when her senses returned, and chakra became just a small hum against her skin. She hadn't realized she was breathing heavily until her hands released Futaaimaru's jaw to support her own weight on the floor. Her vision blurred for a moment as her body tried to reign in her energy once more to be a theoretical crutch through her exhaustion. Chakra sensing had never taken nearly as much energy before, but she guessed it was because she had never tried to sense something this in-depth before. It kind of felt like squinting through a microscope after a long period of time, paired together with a dull headache pulsing in the front of her head.

Thankfully, Kushina and the other two were mindfully silent as Asuka took a couple moments to recuperate before relaying her findings, and bouncing off a couple theories with them. Granted, Asuka didn't exactly feel up to dealing with the exuberance and flamboyance of the ninja foreigners after her draining expenditure of chakra sensing, so she was hoping that they wouldn't stay for much longer. Unfortunately, though, if Asuka went off of anything she learned about them the day before, Kushina and Hige in particular would be willing to give her more grief.

Break time was over when a rough, wet appendage nudged against her cheek. Asuka flinched at the contact, before focusing her eyes onto Futaaimaru, who looked to be waiting patiently on his hind legs. She supposed she did owe them an explanation by now, so with a huff she pushed herself up from the ground, placing a hand on the counter for support, and turned to face the three ninjas.

Asuka told them of her discoveries. Hige didn't seem too happy about it, but Asuka was just starting to assume it was the stick that was shoved so far up his ass it pierced his personality.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" he snarled, his lips curled up to show one of his sharp canines. "So basically what you're telling me is I won't be able to smell shit for a day?"

"I don't know _why_ you want to smell _shit_ of all things, but theoretically, yes."

Kushina snorted. Taiki sighed. Hige growled.

"Kid, this isn't something to joke about! We could lose these bandits by the time we can smell again, and it might be _you're_ village that gets ransacked."

Asuka was ready to retort how could have it been possible for them to lose the bandits if they attacked the village they were currently in, but a warning glance from Taiki made her hold her tongue. She sighed, placing her chin in her hand as she leaned further against the counter. "Look, Hige-san, I'm not entirely sure what you want me to do about it. You can try blowing your nose until its red and raw trying to get the particles and foreign chakra out of your system, or you could shove your face in a barrel of water and breathe in through your nose while praying you don't accidently drown yourself. That could theoretically work, but otherwise I can't help you."

Hige looked ready to verbally attack, but fortunately he only crossed his arms and turned away with a huff. If anything, Asuka would say that he was pouting.

She rolled her eyes at his childish reaction, but didn't say anything about it.

Instead, Asuka moved to pursue her original task before she was interrupted. There were still several empty jars scattered across the table, which Asuka was quick to stack inside her basket. She snagged the list of herbs and roots that needed to be restocked, placing it into the basket as well, before ducking down to gather a small knife that Asuka likened to one of the larger pocketknives from her past life.

"Are…you planning on going anywhere, Asuka-chan?" Kushina inquired with a suspicious tone just as Asuka was hanging her small apron. There was an instinct to grimace at the possibility to where this conversation could head, but Asuka kept her expression as schooled as she could.

"Yes," Asuka answered plainly, snagging her basket from the counter and rounding it towards the door. "I have orders to fill and not enough ingredients. Do the math."

Much to Asuka's aggravation, Kushina was quickly at her heels.

"It's dangerous out on your own right now!" the redhead exclaimed. Her long legs allowed her to easily fall in step with Asuka's child-sized ones. "The bandits are still out there."

"Obviously, because you guys are still here, and half of your team is incapacitated," the younger of the two stated. Asuka cast a quick glance around and noted that Hige, Taiki, and the furry beast were absent. She pursed her lips upon realizing that there would be no means of defense against Kushina with them missing, and she quickened her steps through the village streets. "Here's an idea: you let me do my job, and you ninja folk can actually do yours."

Kushina looked down at her with a frown tugging her lips. She looked like she was holding back her statement when Asuka was approached by one of the villagers, waiting patiently while the two locals participated in polite conversation. The exuberant redhead even joined in near the end as their exchange of words dwindled to an end. One thing was for sure, Asuka realized as she was finally able to part with the other villager, was that Kushina made herself no stranger to the residents.

"You know, Asuka-chan," Kushina started, eyeing the grimace that formed on Asuka's face as soon as she turned away from the Taiyō resident. "I _am_ doing my job. As a kunoichi, it's not just about the mission. We have to protect civilians as well. And that's what I'm doing."

A stubborn frown stayed on Asuka's lips as she continued on their trek towards the woods. "Then shouldn't you be concerned with the masses, rather than an individual? It's kind of redundant, to say your job is to protect the civilians if you only focus on one," Asuka mused, hoping to deter the vibrant teen from accompanying her.

Kushina hummed in thought for a moment, pausing once again as one of the farmers this time stopped for conversation with Asuka. Thankfully, it ended rather quickly, and the two were back to their own conversation.

"I suppose you _do_ have a point, and that could be argued as part of the reason why Konoha ninja travel in three people cells," she replied, weaving her hands together at the back of her head. "But, you've displayed a possible kekkei genkai, and have been practicing it for a while. That's hypothetically created a target onto your back, because anyone could have been watching –including the bandits. By protecting you, it could therefore link to protecting most of the civilians if your abilities were to be trained and used for harm if taken into the wrong hands."

Asuka's frown deepened. She supposed that Kushina's reasoning was sound; it made sense theoretically, and the teen _was_ more experienced with the politics –for lack of a better word– in the ninja world than Asuka. Either way, it didn't sound like Asuka was going to be able to ditch Kushina in the end.

"Fine," Asuka relented, a slight grimace forming onto her face as Kushina's lit up brightly. She breathed a sigh through her nose, already exhausted from dealing with the teen. "If it makes you feel better, then you can come with me."

The redhead shot her an amused look as they stepped into the mass of trees. "I wouldn't leave my cute little student like that, anyways."

A noise caught between a sigh and a groan escaped Asuka's lips. "Selective hearing indeed, Hige," she muttered to herself, halting to a stop when she spotted one of her usual niches for roots. Asuka quickly made her way towards it without alerting Kushina, figuring the redhead would notice soon enough.

Gathering up the plants was relatively easy, Asuka having practiced for around a year now. It was an easy routine to fall on since the ninja had come to shake her mundane life up only the day before, and almost therapeutic in a way. Kushina was watching her movements intently, but it didn't seem to bother her as much as it had before. Perhaps it was the rare silence, or perhaps Asuka was already getting used to the energetic cherry haired teen's presence.

"So how did you do it, anyway? Become a ninja I mean," Asuka questioned after a couple minutes of silence. For some reason, silence just didn't seem to suit Kushina's presence. And Asuka _was_ kind of curious on the process. She wasn't sure if it was ever mentioned on one of the episodes she had watched with her niece. "Indulge my curiosities. Hige-san mentioned something about an academy yesterday."

Kushina's expression perked up immediately from its previous focus. Asuka wasn't sure why, as it was only a question. She hoped Kushina hadn't thought she asked the question for personal purposes –Asuka was still very contented with mundane.

"That's right!" Kushina confirmed with a bright smile. Asuka felt her lips twitch up as well, and quickly ducked her head back down to pulling and cutting up roots. It didn't sway Kushina. "Konoha's academy is where most children start out –civilian and clan. The first year mainly starts when kids are five, and it's just basic subjects with a small introduction into the ninja arts. The kids can decide from then on if they want to go to civilian school, or continue on to graduate to a genin. From then on you learn more about the ninja arts, history, jutsu and stuff like that."

Kushina surprised her on how well she had taken up the 'teacher role'. She prattled off on the physical side of learning, like throwing kunai, senbon, and shuriken, along with molding chakra and controlling it. She easily re-explained several points when Asuka was confused, keeping the information in simple terms.

"And jutsu?" Asuka inquired. "Assuming that you're using the plural word, there's different kind of jutsu."

The redhead's eyes were shining. "That's right! There's lots of different jutsu –ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu are the main ones taught at the academy, but there are lots of other jutsu as well! Ninjutsu is basically using chakra to enhance different things –it's more of a general category that branches off into other things. Elemental ninjutsu, for one is using chakra to manipulate the elements into attacks and defensive moves. Genjutsu is more illusionary to mess with the mind –its difficult to use because they're pretty easy to break, but they can be very destructive if the caster weaves their illusion on their opponent stealthily. And taijutsu is hand-to-hand combat. Again, this one can branch off into different techniques of hand-to-hand, like with weapons and such, but there's a basic style taught at the academy. Clan kids are usually taught their own clan techniques before and during their time at the academy."

Asuka took a moment to process the information Kushina had dumped onto her. It was all so much more interesting that she had originally thought it would be. To think that something as simple as chakra could be used for so many different things was incredible to a person where chakra was just something of a myth.

"And what kind of jutsu do you specialize in?" the younger of the two asked. She reached out to pluck the leaves off of one of the bushes off to the side.

"I'm a fūinjutsu master!" Kushina flashed Asuka a large grin. She was obviously proud. "Fūinjutsu is basically the art of sealing."

Asuka cast her a curious glance at the lack of elaboration. Kushina had taken care with explaining nearly everything in detail in the ninja arts that she had already mentioned, so it was slightly puzzling as to why she had chosen to leave of fūinjutsu like that.

Kushina noticed the look and sent her a slight smirk. "Nuh uh," she waggled her finger. Asuka sent her an irritated expression, once again reaching out to pick through the different plants with her hand. "If you want to know what my specialty does, you're going to have to learn it."

It was a trap, Asuka belatedly realized. Kushina had done so well at weaving her into her intricately placed spider web, touching upon Asuka's curiosities just enough to make her feel both satisfied and yearning for more. The teen must have noticed Asuka's hunger for learning early on, and she had led Asuka into the bear bit like an entrancing seductress. Now, though, Kushina had laid her cards down, and it had become very apparent that the redhead was actually very serious about taking her on as a student. It was Asuka's turn to play now, and it honestly worried her that her mind was indecisive.

Kushina had adopted her serious face again, and she was staring intently at Asuka's face as if she were searching for a reaction. Asuka's face was riddled with surprise, frozen much like her hand that was in the middle of reaching to snap a stem off of the bush she was crouched in front of. What Kushina was proposing was an incredibly opportunity, but at the same time, Asuka could guess just what she would be giving up by agreeing to be the teen's student, and frankly, she didn't think she was quite ready for that. She didn't want to throw her life away after being able to accomplish so many things that she never had the chance to accomplish because her body held her back. And now, she was living. She was contented. Most of all, she was scared.

Asuka sucked in a breath, keeping her eyes trained on her outstretched hand. "I –"

She never had a chance to speak.

…

 **And that concludes the third chapter. A big big thanks to everyone who reviewed since the second chapter came out, I appreciate your feedback so much!**

 **I'm so sorry for the incredibly late update (what, has it been like three weeks?), but I just got so completely caught up with finals and graduation (I have to do adult things now?) that I just hadn't had any time to finish the second half of this chapter until Monday.**

 **So, hopefully the wait was worth it. Things are finally starting to wrap up in Taiyō. Unfortunately, it might be a bit until I can get the next chapter up. I'm going to visit family for a week on Sunday, so I won't have any access to my computer for that time.**

 **Concerning a question I received, I realize that the intro of chapter two might be a bit confusing. It was, in fact, a look into the future of the aftermath in Taiyō, which was why Asuka knew Kushina's name beforehand. In hindsight, that must not have come across as clearly as I had hoped. So perhaps if I put a little** 'two days earlier' **after the intro, it would come across smoother? If you want to give your opinion on that, it would be appreciated but not necessary. I just want to make sure that everyone is happy with the way it flows :)**

 **And now, to the review replies!**

 **Amequa –thank you so much for your review! I'm really glad to know that my Kushina has been up to par, and hopefully she remained up to your satisfaction this chapter! At first I had a little trouble deciding Asuka's age, but I wanted to make it as realistic as possible, because, honestly, it would be a little strange if she was an exact Kakashi-clone (graduating at five, becoming** **Chūnin at six), and considering the difference in how they were raised, I thought seven would be a decent age for Asuka to start out at.**

 **I write the story in past tense, so I guess it could be argued that this is Asuka from a future point (but really, I hate writing in present tense), and if you were wondering about the intro of chapter two, then that was indeed a future glance. Pertaining Asuka's knowledge of nature chakra, it was mentioned briefly that Hanako had told her what it was in the first chapter (and why Hanako knows about it will be mentioned a little later).**

 **Hopefully that has answered your questions. Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you will continue to enjoy Asuka's journey!**

 **Llyrica –thank you very much!**

 **Tsmm –haha Kakashi does need some loving, doesn't he? We'll see what happens with pairings as things are pretty up in the air this early on (you never know, I might really like the interactions I write with totally different characters), so we'll see if our dear Kaka-chan gets a little love.**

 **I'm glad Asuka's looking realistic to you. That comes off as a big relief, because I really want this to be as realistic as possible. I hope you will continue to read about what happens with Asuka, and of course, enjoy it as well!**

 **Here again (Guest) –yes, the slow paced stories really are fantastic aren't they? Hopefully mine will be up to par with those. That would really be an honor! For your questions, I hope the first was answered in the little paragraph before the answers, and concerning nature chakra, it was briefly mentioned in the first chapter that Hanako had told her what it was.**

 **Ducky the Insomniac Panda –(loving the username, btw) thank you so much! I'm happy you like Asuka so far, and I hope you'll continue to enjoy her story as it goes on!**

 **SomeRandomPerson (Guest) –thank you! I didn't actually mean to base her off of Kakashi (but now I see similarities haha), I was really trying to make her a little brat haha (leaves room for wonderful character development after destruction and sorrow), so at least it comes across fairly well. Because honestly, Kakashi was a dick when he was younger. He and Asuka should have a** _ **wonderful**_ **friendship (dialogue will be fun between them, at the very least).**

 **I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far! Hopefully I can keep up to your standards :D**

 **Kristina'sMyName –I'm happy that you like it so far, and thank you! Hehe, as far as shipping goes, it's really up in the air. We'll see if Kaka-chan (swoon indeed, my friend) gets a little loving when they're older, or not. It definitely will be interesting as to where the story will go, but wherever it ends up I'm not planning on giving Asuka the easy route there!**

 **ArdensLux (Guest) –thank you! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well :)**

 **Well, that's a long author's note, so until next time, lovelies~**


	4. Taiyō's End: Day Three

Red. It was everywhere. Red, red, red, red. Something burned white hot. Her hand, maybe? She couldn't tell. She could only see the crimson staining her innocence on the ground. Did that little flower still have white on it? No. Red was dripping down. It was drowning chastity with its venom. The stem snapped with the venom's weight, and she watched mesmerized as the chastity toppled to the ground defeated in a mess of red.

"Asuka-chan get up! Get up, now!"

Someone was yelling. It was muffled by the screams of her own ears, yet nothing passed her lips. She continued to watch the crimson drip down. Something was shaking. Was it her? Yes. But something was also shaking her.

"It's them, hurry! We have to get out, Asuka-chan!"

That voice was yelling again. But that didn't matter, because she could see it now. She could see the torch that burned her hand. It's silver coat gleamed from the cracks of sunlight, a shining form protruding from either side of her hand –one trickling crimson, another gleaming maliciously. How had that gotten there? She couldn't remember a bush with that big of a thorn.

She was standing fully now. There were hands on her shoulders, guiding her somewhere. But she could only see the burning thorn.

"Asuka-chan, please!"

She slowly lifted her head from her red hand, catching another sway of crimson in the corner of her eye. She followed it up, up, and found herself looking into desperation. Desperation looked really familiar. Desperation's hands were gripping her shoulders really tight, jerking her stumbling legs somewhere. Why was Desperation so desperate?

Asuka blinked. That was Kushina. Kushina was desperate; she was panicked. Why? Kushina's eyes looked away. Her grip tightened, and suddenly Asuka was yanked back. Something was suddenly lodged into the ground where she was standing not even a second before. It looked like a knife.

Were they under attack?

"Asuka-chan snap out of it, dattebane!"

Suddenly, her eyes came into focus. Her senses went wild. Diluted chakra was building up in areas all around them, and Asuka could pinpoint every one of them.

"Kushina, to your left!" she shouted. The teen pushed Asuka down to avoid a volley of projectiles, and before she could even blink, Kushina had pulled some of her own out and shot them towards where Asuka had directed. Before they were moving again, Asuka had managed to snag one of the kunai out from the ground with her good hand. "We're surrounded, what do we do?"

The panic and desperation in her own voice sounded very apparent as Kushina raced her through the trees.

"You know the forest best," Kushina started, something shot out from her that looked like a bunch of chains. Asuka could feel the chakra emitting from it. The chains wrapped around one of the bandits as Asuka directed, and tossed him straight through several tree trunks. "Is there anywhere that we could possibly lose them at?"

Asuka's mind raced. She couldn't think of anything. She didn't know. There were too many things running through her mind at bullet speed that she couldn't even begin to consider their current location, let along think of others they could find and hide in.

"I –I don't know! I can't –" Asuka cut herself off from her petrified blubbering, because there was a very funny disruption with the natural chakra. "Kushina, I think there's someone undergrou –"

There was a crash, a scream, and everything went black.

…

 **Day Three**

…

Disoriented was a mild way of describing Asuka's state when she started to regain consciousness. Pain came from all different directions on her body, ranging from stiffness, to _oh my god there's a hole in my body_ , to intense migraine. Her shoulder was asleep, and she definitely wasn't sleeping on her futon.

The stench of sweat and body odor was so incredibly pungent that it made her headache pulse and her stomach curl. There were so many different chakra signatures flitting around it, it made her headache worsen trying to depict through them all. None of them were familiar from what she was able to tell anyway.

Asuka wanted to stay lying there with her eyes closed. She didn't want to face what could possibly be the very real outcome of the attack on her and Kushina. Kushina had said it was her job to protect civilians, right? Then Kushina would come for her. Assuming she wasn't dead –

No. Asuka refused to bring up that possibility. Thinking hurt too much, anyways. Probably a concussion, if she remembered the time her brother had one correctly. She could feel the natural chakra nipping at the back of her neck, where there was presumably a bump, as well as at the hole in her hand. She could feel an unsettling breeze flowing near her hand, and she did _not_ want to think about how she could feel the breeze threading _through_ her hand.

And then there was a thought that suddenly hit her, panic blossoming in her chest once again. She was with the bandits. They had kidnapped her. They were strong enough to evade Kushina's team. She could die. _She could die again_.

Asuka's scream tore through the camp.

The effect was instantaneous. Before she could even open her eyes, take another breath, large and unfamiliar hands clamped down on her struggling body. Her mouth was gagged by an old, dirty cloth, tied tightly against the bump on the back of her head. Asuka's legs flailed, she kicked madly –a couple times she felt her flimsy sandal meet with flesh. It never occurred to her that these actions could be the ones to get her killed, she just wanted to get out of there.

Eventually she was subdued. A much larger body was crushing her against the ground, forcing her bound hands to uncomfortably dig into her stomach. There were several voices hissing all at once, and Asuka forced herself to reign in her panic. She didn't even realize that there were tears streaming down her face until her nose was dripping distastefully into her gag.

"The brat's awake. What the hell did you guys want with her anyways?" a rough voice growled from somewhere nearby. Asuka wasn't too sure. She couldn't move her head, nor was she fond of opening her eyes to the light and make her head pound even more.

"What the hell do you think?" another voice spat. "The crazy redhead wants her as a student. The kid must have some great potential if that's the case."

Asuka might not have been able to understand much at that point, but 'crazy redhead' and 'student' fit together so well that her reason for being kidnapped was blaringly obvious. It didn't seem like the bandits knew of anything special in particular about Asuka, but Kushina's loud declaration seemed to have caught their interest. Asuka decided she could curse Kushina's existence later. Perhaps if she survived.

"Really? Because to me she just looks like a kid that's about to shit herself."

Another person snorted. "Wow, you really fucked up."

"Why don't you shut the hell up?" the person who had given the reason for her kidnapping snarled. Asuka suddenly felt herself being tugged up from the ground. The abrupt movement made her stomach churn, and she had to hold down the bile that was threatening to rise from her throat. Asuka's legs wobbled as she tried to center herself, but felt aggravation stir in the back of her mind when she had to rely on the person holding her up more than she had wanted. Her chin was seized and pulled to the left, but she continued to squeeze her eyes shut in order to lessen the pain the light would give her.

The gag was ripped out of her mouth painfully. "Well, bitch? What's special about you?"

Asuka could think of several things to say, all of which would end up with some kind of trouble. Sarcasm, most likely would be about as appreciated as her little freak-out, whereas the truth would inevitably have her as a continued captive in the group of bandits. Instead, Asuka relied on a neutral response. The less they thought she knew, the more she could use it to her advantage. Perhaps she could manage her own escape. If she could find the proper plants, she could whip up a quick poison or paralyzer for defense, and last case resort she could photosynthesize them all.

"I don't know," she responded meekly. She inwardly cursed at her wavering voice. Asuka needed to be strong –she _was_ strong– and cracking wasn't going to help her get away one bit.

"That's a load of bull," one voice growled.

"She might not actually know," another reasoned. "Did you see how pathetic she was when we nabbed her?"

Asuka mentally sneered, but kept her face frightened, because in the end –before she would ever admit– she was frightened.

"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do with her then? I don't want to feed her too."

One of the many voices snorted. "Kill her. She's got no use to us."

"Or use her to lure the ninja, kill them all."

Asuka pursed her lips. Fuck that; like she was going to let them use her like a worm on a fishing hook. She refused to be reduced to be mere chum.

Very slowly, Asuka willed her eyelids to open as the bandits tossed off ideas on what to do with her. The light was as blaringly painful as she had thought it to be, but she resisted the groan in her throat to not bring attention to her. It was a tedious process, and her headache was indeed booming by the time her eyes were fully opened to messily scan her surroundings.

There were two caravans at most, presumably filled with the stolen goods from other villages and merchants. The camp was small, with the bare minimum set out for sleeping purposes as well as the occasional weapon lying around, which could easily be packed up in the case of a quick getaway. There were approximately fifteen people, ugly and rough, varying in ages and genders, as well as levels of chakra. Most of them looked preoccupied; although there were several of them lingering closer towards the area Asuka was being held in, most likely waiting on standby in the case something were to happen –or if Asuka were to cause more trouble.

Her eyes slowly moved towards the outskirts of the camp, careful not to move her head against the foreign hand that still held it in place, in hopes to find some familiarity to the area. There wasn't much she could go off of to try and determine her location –not to mention thinking extensively was still a bit difficult to manage– but she had succeeded in identifying some plants she could use for a quick defense when she would need them.

"So are we just going to keep the kid here until the ninja come?"

It seemed as if the bandits finally came upon a unanimous decision over her temporary fate, by relying on the assumption that Kushina would come back for Asuka. Asuka almost doubted the teen and her team would actually come –it wasn't like they were well acquainted or anything– but she needed to solidify her life for at least a few more hours.

"You better believe they'll come to save me!" Asuka blurted. She inwardly grimaced at how faithful and desperate she sounded, especially at the amount of sincerity her voice used. She had to do this, though; because it was the only way she'd be able to make it out on her own. The only person she wanted to rely on was herself, and she was going to get herself away from captivity. She could do this herself.

The bandit holding her, a female by the rough sound of her voice, snorted. "We're counting on that." The woman loosened her grip on Asuka, and let out a loud chortle as her legs wobbled and Asuka collapsed to the ground in a heap. "Hibiki, you absolute dumbass. 'Great potential.'"

Asuka lay crippled in the dirt, her stomach rolling from the sudden movement, as the bandits lingering around –with the exception of Hibiki, she supposed– laughed at her miserable form. Her uninjured hand clenched in anger. She was angry at many things. She was angry at the bandits; she was angry at Kushina for being too loud and persistent; she was angry at this fucking crazy world that she was reborn into; she was angry at her own stupid ass for being so weak in front of her assailants.

"Go fuck yourselves," she hissed, pushing herself up onto her elbows using an annoyingly large amount of effort.

The reaction to her words had happened in an instant. Her tormenters had stopped their boisterous howls; Asuka could almost feel the atmosphere darkening –the hostility emitting through their chakra overwhelmed her senses. If Asuka weren't going through such a rollercoaster of pain and emotions, she would have belatedly realized that she had probably just signed her death warrant. These people were unruly, they were capable of attacking her and Kushina, and had not hesitated to shove a flying senbon through her hand. They were dangerous; and she was spoiled with the peaceful atmosphere of Taiyō, because Asuka was once again reminded that she was no longer in her own world.

Children were trained to be killers in this world, and these people were no different.

Pain erupted in her side, the impact sending Asuka rolling once on the ground. A fleeting thought passed her mind –hadn't she been hurt enough already?– but it was quickly squashed when another kick from the other direction sent her sprawling miserably against the ground, hacking her throat raw. She had been resisting the urge to throw up since she had regained consciousness, but with two kicks to her gut, Asuka could do nothing to stop the heaving from her stomach. There wasn't much that came up, but the mortification was enough for Asuka.

"What the fuck did you say? 'Cuz I was thinkin' you just told me to go fuck myself!"

There were several other enraged shouts coming from the bandits around her. Some were throwing out suggestions on what to do with her –torture and death seemed the most popular– all the while she continued to dry heave through the pain. It now seemed to hit her that opening her mouth was a bad idea.

She didn't want to die so soon; so pitifully. She had died once already from suffocation in her previous life. It had barely been a little over seven years since she started living again, yet as she was lying on the ground trying to recover from her most recent hits, Asuka couldn't help but notice the similarities between now and her last life. She hated it –the weakness. She hadn't improved at all. She was just as unnecessary as she was before, perhaps now even more so.

Asuka hadn't noticed the sizzling of the rope binding her hands together until the bonds had loosened. She could feel the raw chakra gathering at her impaled hand, dulling the pain by latching onto the wound. The raw chakra was buzzing about the area wildly, absorbing the enraged diluted chakra the bandits surrounding her gave off. They were closing in on her curled body, and the chakra surging through the air became almost unbearable.

A pair of hands wrapped around her throat, the shriek that escaped Asuka's mouth had only caused the grip to tighten. A knee pressed into her stomach, and with the weight shifted into the appendage, it dug in painfully. Asuka kicked as hard as she could, hoping to reach some of the other bandits crowding around. Her hands clawed at her assailant desperately, because she couldn't breathe. _She couldn't breathe_ , and _she was suffocating again._

Natural chakra was bouncing wildly from the hysteria of emotions coming from the bandits and herself. Asuka's nails raked against the bandit whose hands were choking her, he might have let out a pained yowl –she couldn't tell. Asuka could only focus on the frenzy her body and mind were in, because suddenly she was back in her own world. She was back in that sickly, pathetic body as it attacked itself in the middle of the night –as she desperately gasped for air that wasn't coming as her lungs slowly closed up on themselves. There was no one to call out for in her lonely apartment, no phone within reach, the inhaler knocked off of her bedside table.

The sharp burning of the intense influx of raw chakra in the air had reined Asuka's mind away from her nightmare, brief enough for her to be able to lash out.

The area exploded.

~…~

Asuka wanted nothing more than to stay in the sweet bliss of unconsciousness. She wanted to pretend that she was with her family a little longer; that she wasn't a part of this shitty world.

"Look, there's a sign of concussion, and if that's true then she needs to be awake."

It was whispered, but it wasn't quiet enough.

"We can wake her up."

This voice was gruffer, and unfortunately louder than the more considerate voice.

"What? No –that's not what I meant, Hige!"

Before Asuka's heavy mind could process what the considerate voice said, a familiar mass had settled itself on top of her stomach. The sudden onslaught of weight –setting off a stinging pain on her stomach, as gentle as it might have been– had caused her to lurch into unfortunate awareness.

Her migraine had calmed a little, but she kept her eyes shut for reassurance. She knew there were two people with her at the very least, but as far as more presences went, Asuka couldn't tell if there were more. It should have scared her, if not for her mind wandering to the events that had led her into this position.

The images flashed from the very start of it all; the warning of bandits two days ago, meeting Kushina only a couple hours later, consulting the Inuzuka duo about their nose problem, going out to collect herbs with Kushina, the senbon flying into her hand, _redredred_ , waking up in the bandit camp, getting attacked, the explosion. The memories flew through her mind at an aching speed; the intense fear she experienced had latched itself into her mind.

She tried to scream, but it only came out a whimper.

Cool hands were on her, but Asuka _thrashed_. The weight on her stomach had held her down easily enough, but that didn't stop her from flailing out of desperation. Her hand collided with skin, and there was a grunt from whomever she had hit, but the cool hands had moved to her shoulders to push her back down against the cushioned floor.

"Hitsugaya, calm down! We're not going to hurt you!"

Asuka's eyes snapped open, only calming once she registered Taiki's familiar light blue eyes in the dim moonlight. She stared at him owlishly for a few minutes, but her body relaxed against the futon, and the teen was able to remove his hands from her shoulders. She slowly moved her head to look around the room, noticing Hige standing a little ways away, looking relatively roughed up and beaten, with his arms crossed over his chest. Futaaimaru took that chance to lift himself up from her stomach and sit next to his partner. Asuka looked back to Taiki, who looked just about as roughed up as Hige.

She opened her mouth to talk, but Taiki had stopped her before she made more than a sound. He held a cup up to her lips carefully, easing her into a light sitting position so she could drink the lukewarm water. While doing so, he had taken to replying to Asuka's unspoken question.

"We took you back to the apothecary after subduing what was left of the bandit camp. Whatever you did, it injured a lot of them, so we were able to get you back quickly. I healed your more severe injuries –mostly burns, and the puncture through your hand– as best as I could, but they will still take some time to heal completely. I couldn't do anything about your concussion until you were awake," Taiki relayed, just as he held his hand out and it started glowing blue after a few weird hand motions. He gently placed his hand on the back of her head, and Asuka could feel the lull of his soft chakra soaking into her injury. "I can't say much about the mission, but Hige and Futaaimaru managed to track you down by that stray kunai you picked up when you and Kushina were ambushed. It uh, had some of your blood on it, so it was easy for them."

Hige chose that moment to settle onto the other side of Asuka's futon, reaching into a pouch on his belt before pulling something small and bronze out of it. He flipped the kunai around so he was holding the bladed end, holding out the grip for Asuka to take. Asuka's lips thinned as she stared at it, fighting the flurry of emotions rising as she did so, and tentatively grasped it with her bandaged hand. Her thumb ran around the ring of the weapon, feeling worn grooves inscribed onto the curved metal as she did so. She couldn't tell what the engravings were through the silver moonlight.

When she moved to hand it back, Hige shook his head. "Keep it. You probably earned it by rights and all."

Great. Just what she wanted. A physical item that served as a permanent reminder of her pathetic failures.

Asuka placed it down on the floor.

"Managed to get my nose working in time," Hige carried on from the original conversation. He sniffed, and rubbed at his nose. "Tai managed to use his medical jutsu to rig a water displacement-thing to get the enhanced particles out of our noses. We probably wouldn't have figured that out as quick as we did. So thanks, I guess. You're pretty smart, kid, but I guess you're also a complete dumbass."

Taiki reached over and cuffed Hige on the shoulder, shooting him a glare, before taking the hand that had been healing Asuka's concussion away. She immediately missed the soothing feeling –not completely unlike the feeling of raw chakra when stimulated– and her body was replaced by a cold stillness. It was an almost foreign feeling, and with a startling realization, Asuka found that it was exactly how it was before she could ever feel chakra. She couldn't feel the buzzing of the natural energy against her skin. She couldn't even sense Taiki's healing chakra until it was soaked into her body. It was terrifying.

"W-what," she choked out. Her voice was raw, it hurt so much, but she needed to find out what happened. Did that large-scale explosion screw her abilities over? What would happen to her body now? "What happened to me? Why –why can't I feel the energy –"

She was working herself into frenzy again. Hige pushed her back down with one hand, while Taiki repeated his movements on the other side.

"Calm down –" How would Hige even think she _could_ calm down?! "Things were incredibly intense when we found you in the aftermath, okay? Raw chakra was getting absorbed into your body at an incredible speed, and Kushina had to put a seal on you so you wouldn't absorb a ton and overload yourself, and then die. It's a precaution now that we know the extent of what you can do."

Asuka didn't like it. She didn't fucking like it at all. She knew her limits with her ability, and she didn't need these people baby her –she didn't need to be treated like a radioactive explosive. She could handle her own body herself.

"Take it off!" she shrieked, which, in hindsight, probably wasn't the best thing for her throat.

"Hitsugaya, only Kushina knows how the seal works, and frankly, neither Hige or I know how to perform fūinjutsu. Besides, we all agreed that it would be best for you be blocked off from whatever you can sense until we can get someone adept in the area to check your safety," Taiki calmly explained. Asuka readied herself for a biting response, if not for the door slamming open to reveal the longhaired redhead that Asuka did _not_ want to see at the moment.

"Hanako-san is asking to talk to all of us to figure out –oh! Asuka-chan, you're up already!" Kushina threw her a grin, although the dim lighting had contorted it slightly from what Asuka could see, quickly bounding into the dimly lit room and stopping next to Taiki. "We were really worried when we found you like that. I'm glad that we've managed to stabilize you for the mean time."

Asuka was ready to demand _what the fuck does she mean by 'for the mean time'_ , but was interrupted again by another presence entering the room. She gave a small wince when she realized it was Hanako-baa, who was giving her a hell of a glare (what for? She didn't do anything wrong!) as she approached Asuka and the group of ninja. The old bat kept her beady eyes on Asuka.

"You three, get out. We need to continue discussing this." And with that, the old woman turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.

Taiki and Hige followed after her fairly quickly, the latter ordering Futaaimaru to stay, but Kushina lingered. Her grin had dropped so fast it startled Asuka, almost as much as the guilt-ridden expression that soon took the grin's place. The older teen's face, by all means, was nearly unreadable, but Asuka could find glint in the redhead's eyes.

"I…I don't really know what to say, Asuka-chan," Kushina started. The tone of her voice didn't suit her, and Asuka had to resist the urge to jump up and try to cheer her up –she was still pissed at the teen for blocking off the raw chakra, after all. Kushina let out a deep breath. "It's…It's my fault. I got so caught up with trying to become your teacher that I forgot about my job. I couldn't even protect you from the ambush –and –"

"I still don't want to become a ninja," Asuka cut in with a raspy voice. She refused to look at Kushina, instead opting to stare at the ceiling. Her bandaged hand reached out to grasp that bronze kunai lying next to her, running her fingers over the cool metal as the flurry of emotions came through it. "I don't have a reason to become a ninja, but I want to become stronger."

It was silent between the two females, before Kushina had given a small nod before exiting the room.

"I'll update you on what's decided," she offered, before slipping past the doorframe.

As soon as the redhead left, Asuka dropped the kunai in her hand as if it were poison. Which, it was in her thoughts. It represented her weakness –her sickly self in her last life– and it disgusted her. It disgusted her that she hadn't even been able to rely on herself.

That kunai was the poison in her mind.

It was in that very same position that Kushina had found her once again, the only difference being Futaaimaru's position, who seemed to have found comfort in lying on top of Asuka once again. Her fingers were buried into the beast's fuzzy mane in a sort of mutual comfort, as Kushina had relayed the decision she, her team, and Hanako-baa had come up with.

Kushina leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed, one finger absentmindedly tapping the crook of her elbow as if contemplating what to say. Finally, Kushina opened her mouth. What the teen said was not something Asuka had wanted to hear.

Asuka would be leaving Taiyō in the morning with the ninja to go to Konoha. She hated it, she would be leaving the only peace she could find in both this crazy world and her past world to an even crazier village where it was normal to teach children to be murderers and psychopaths. She didn't want to be apart of that, yet it seemed that it wasn't even her decision.

Kushina had bid her goodnight shortly after telling her the gist of the plan to go to Konoha –apparently there was an expert or two on Natural Energy, and would be able to determine if Asuka's ability was a danger to her life or not. They would head out rather early in the morning to avoid the majority of Taiyō's crowd, and with hope, Hanako-baa would be the only one that she would have to say goodbye to.

The whole night, that bronze kunai glared angrily next to her in the moonlight.

…

 **And that ends the Taiyō Arc! Sorry it took a bit longer to get up, like I mentioned last chapter I was visiting family (didn't stop me from writing scene ideas in my notes, though) for the past week. Expect updates to go a bit slower, as I am searching for a summer job now that I'm finally free (*internal screaming*), and my mom is determined to keep me off of my computer as much as possible.**

 **Replies:**

 **TamashinoSuzume –I tried really hard to keep Asuka away from perfection, so I'm glad that it's showing to you! I thought about making her remember things like a classic narutard self-insert, but in the end I decided that the experience would be more fun when Asuka is completely clueless. Thanks for the review, and I hope you continue to enjoy Downward Spiral!**

 **SomeRandomPerson (Guest) –I'm glad you like my portrayal of Kushina so far! She's a bit of a devious prankster, and a ninja, so I figured that she would be sneaky (especially to someone as clueless as Asuka haha). Expect much chaos now that we are entering Konoha. Much much chaos.**

 **I don't plan to give up on the story (even recently bought a necklace with the ANBU symbol on it to remind myself to get my shit together and stop procrastinating) and I hope you don't either as it continues! Thanks for the congrats (ugh, life is so scary now that I'm out of high school). I hope to reply to all of my reviewers, because your guys' input means so much to me as a writer. I love to hear what you like and don't like, so your review means a lot to me :) VIRTUAL HUGS YES PLEASE~**

 **BerserkMoon –hehe I'm happy that this is your cup of tea! I gotta tell you, that this is going to be a rollercoaster of a story, so I hope you continue to read!**

I appreciate your guys' reviews and alerts so much! I hope you keep giving me feedback! Tell me what you like about the story, don't like about the story, what you think about Asuka (good and bad, give it to me haha), or any questions you might have that I can clarify. And I would absolutely love to hear your guys' predictions for the future!

 **See you next time in Konoha~**


	5. Starting Line

While Konoha was significantly more incredible than Taiyō had been, Asuka was a stubborn person. She was still sore (physically and mentally), and pissed that she had no say in the plan of action. So, when asked what she thought of the Hidden Village, Asuka kept the frigid frown on her face as she turned away from Kushina.

The trip was surprisingly fast, due to enhance ninja running, although the discomfort of sitting atop of Futaaimaru's warm and furry back was increasing as the day and a half of running continued on. Futaaimaru didn't complain much –according to Hige, who could apparently speak oversized beast– and Asuka assumed it was because she was in a seven-year-old body, and quite light for her age and height. No one really said much on the trip to Konoha; Kushina had tried several times to start up a conversation, but Asuka remained stubbornly silent each time.

Silence was nice on the run to Konoha, but now it was increasingly becoming irritating.

Taiki had kindly ordered her to sit in one of the waiting chairs outside of the Hokage's office, and Hige was kind enough to ask Futaaimaru to stay behind to keep her company in the foreign building. Asuka was fine with that at first, because at least she had a small distraction from the curious stares she received when she had first walked in with Kushina's team, but Asuka couldn't really hold a conversation with the dog. The clock showed that they were in there for half an hour already. She found it rude that she had to wait for so long when she didn't even want to be in this village.

Asuka jumped in her seat when the door opened, grudging Kushina once more because she couldn't sense the chakra at all, and looked curiously as Taiki waved for her to come closer. She obeyed immediately, eager to get away from that uncomfortable seat in the awkward silence, and entered the office after Taiki with Futaaimaru quickly at her heels.

The Hokage was everything she expected him to be –old and beady-eyed– but even Asuka could feel the air of respect he demanded, thus prompting her to give a clumsy bow upon meeting his eyes.

"Hokage-sama, this is Hitsugaya Asuka-chan," Kushina offered, quickly grabbing hold of Asuka's shoulders before she could weasel out of the older teen's grip. "She's the one we had mentioned previously in our report."

The old man glanced briefly between Kushina and her teammates before his gaze returned to Asuka, who was resisting the urge to grimace upon gaining his attention once more. He weaved his fingers together, and resting his chin on top of them. "So you've come to Konoha to request Jiraiya to test your abilities."

It was said as a statement –a falsely worded one– that Asuka was quick to correct, despite the belated consideration that she should be more respectful. "Actually I was taken here against my will…Hokage-sama."

"'Against your will?'" Hige indignantly repeated. "Are you accusing us of kidnapping you?"

Asuka shot him a deadpan look with an undertone of distaste. "I had no choice in the matter, which means I was taken here without my consent, which therefore equates to kidnapping. Yes, you kidnapped me."

Taiki looked to be holding back a sigh at Hige's increasingly irate expression. "Please, both of you, don't get into this now."

Asuka was ready to argue, but Kushina had squeezed her shoulders tightly, effectively silencing the young girl. "While that may be so, Asuka-chan, you hold a potential danger to your civilian village, we had no choice but to take you here until you we can train you."

"Bullshit!" Asuka snapped, turning her furious look onto Kushina, who had enough modesty to wince and drop her hands from Asuka's shoulders as if she were burned. "I was perfectly fine before you guys came along and screwed everything up!"

"An explosion as high end as the one you created –" Hige started to argue.

"Was out of self defense because I was being choked to death while you guys were taking your sweet precious time!" Asuka countered with a screech. "I have it handled, and I don't need this stupid seal screwing with my senses just because you guys don't know what you're talking about!"

There was more to be said, if not for the Hokage's interruption.

"Regardless," he cut in, making Asuka grimace as she remembered just whose presence she was in. "We will have you tested for increased safety measures. Unfortunately, Jiraiya is out scouting the warfront for the next few months, Minato, however, left on a mission with his student yesterday. Those two should be back fairly soon. Until Minato returns, you will have to stay in Konoha. Is that agreeable?"

Did she have much of a choice? With a sigh of defeat, she nodded.

"Excellent. There will be terms for your stay in Konoha, however." Asuka raised her eyebrows. Now she had to follow terms on top of being in captivity? "You will attend academy classes for chakra control –"

"I can already control chakra," Asuka butt in with a clench of her jaw. Instead of offended at her disrespect, the Hokage looked more amused than anything.

"A demonstration, then, as proof."

Asuka crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't you have something better to do than watch a civilian stick a leaf to her forehead?"

Hige grunted, whilst Taiki gave another sigh. The Hokage's face remained as it was. He held out a small green leaf that seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Humor me."

With a huff, Asuka more or less stomped towards the old man and snatched the leaf from his outstretched palm. She proceeded to hold the leaf up with her hands while working to concentrate chakra onto her forehead just as Hanako-baa instructed. Asuka frowned when she couldn't feel the formation of energy build up after a couple seconds. Her arms slowly relaxed and rested at her sides as she continued her contemplation with a puzzled expression.

"I can't feel anything," she murmured.

"What do you mean?" Kushina piped in, her voice softly curious.

Asuka's eyebrows knit together in concentration. "I've done this thousands of times this past year…" Her fingers started tapping against her thigh in thought. She tilted her head to look down at the leaf in her other hand. "But maybe I've just been using raw chakra as a stimulant rather than my own. Perhaps I don't have a chakra network, and the natural chakra is working as compensation?"

She felt slightly chagrined at the thought of having no chakra network. She almost felt as if she were ripped off if that truly were the case –a healthy body, but no chakra system to work with. It was about as much as a joke as her frail body was in her last life.

"That's impossible," Hige intervened, and Asuka glanced over at him curiously. "Everyone has a chakra system –even you. If you didn't, Taiki wouldn't have been able to heal your injuries as well as he had."

Asuka pursed her lips. "So I just can't tell the difference between my own chakra and natural chakra?"

The Inuzuka shrugged. "Could be, kid. So I guess that means you're taking academy classes in the end." He shot her a feral grin that showed his clear amusement. Asuka shot him a dirty look, before looking back at the Hokage to finish her terms of captivity.

The old man nodded. "Kushina will be your watcher, so you will be staying with her in her apartment over the course of your stay. Anything else will be up to Kushina to decide."

Both Asuka and Kushina nodded. "Understood, Hokage-sama," Kushina said. "Thank you for your time."

Asuka repeated the last line out of politeness. Her hand had crushed the leaf.

"Thank you for your time, Hokage-sama."

…

 **Starting Line**

…

Asuka's teeth ground every time she bumped into a person while walking through Konoha's streets. Her glare remained on Kushina's back as she followed the teen –who was easily dodging through the crowd– who had decided to take a _shopping detour_ while on the way back to her apartment. Asuka was ready to throttle the redhead, because she was in no mood to go clothing shopping with the person who had blocked her sensory abilities with a fucking paintbrush.

She thought she had made her displeasure obvious, but it seemed that this was one of the times Kushina used her 'selective hearing'.

"Since you're going to be attending academy classes, we should probably get you some clothes that are more up to a ninja-grade durability. We also didn't really give you much time to pack, so you can pick out whatever casual wear you want and I'll pay," Kushina illustrated once she had entered one of the boutiques scattered across the main street. She gestured towards the contents of the store with her hand, where dozens of racks polluted the floor. "If you need to ask anything about ninja-grad clothing, feel free to."

Kushina had given Asuka her widest grin, although it looked somewhat forced from what Asuka could see. It didn't look like the redhead would change her mind about leaving, so Asuka started to roam around the boutique with defeat.

She had to give it to Kushina, though, because it was a rather nice clothing store –especially for a world with such a distasteful old style. Some articles, Asuka could see, somewhat resembled some form of fashion from her old life. She was easily drawn to those, and found herself picking out the clothing that mostly resembled what she could remember of what had belonged in her past wardrobe.

There were several times that Kushina had brought up clothing to try on, and while Asuka tried to be somewhat civil towards the teen, she couldn't help the small flash of animosity in her chest every time the redhead came into view. Kushina had obviously noticed Asuka's feelings by the time the clothing purchases were made (Asuka wanted to make it really expensive, but the past budgeter in her absolutely refused), because she had taken the younger looking female aside once they exited the boutique.

Asuka stared evenly at Kushina, waiting patiently for the teen to speak. The redhead seemed to be having an inner war with herself, because she had taken a while to finally open her mouth.

"Look, Asuka-chan," she started with a sigh, before her face molded into such an intense resolve that it almost threw Asuka through a loop then and there. "I know that this isn't desirable for you, but I'm trying to make this as easy for you as possible until Minato comes back. After he examines you, you'll be free to do whatever you want. You can go back to your village, or stay here and continue learning ninja arts. Whatever you do, I want it to be _your_ decision, because I've taken away most of them since we met. Until then, can we please try to make this work?"

Asuka was honestly floored by Kushina's declaration. She was taken aback, yet also warmed that Kushina had cared enough to clear the air between them like this. Now, she genuinely felt as if she could respect Kushina.

A rare, warm smile was what Asuka had given Kushina in reply.

The day had become increasingly relaxing after Kushina had confronted Asuka. The redhead had even done her best to help steer Asuka through the crowd (as much as Asuka hated being walked like a dog) to avoid bumping into people she couldn't sense. Kushina had even gone as far as giving Asuka a nearly complete tour of Konoha, which was significantly larger than Taiyō in both landscape and population. It was all a bit dizzying, especially at the coffee-buzzed tour guide pace Kushina charged through the village with, but the small breaks taken by browsing some shops had allowed Asuka to process most of the information Kushina buried her in.

Asuka would be lying, though; if she said she wasn't completely relieved by the time she was finally taken into Kushina's apartment and showed the guest bedroom. Dinner was satisfying –Asuka was pleasantly surprised to find that Kushina was a rather talented chef– and afterwards, the redhead had taken some time to explain a couple academy techniques in more detail, so Asuka could be a little more prepared for the next day.

Chakra control wasn't the only thing Asuka had to learn at the academy during her stay, unfortunately. She would be included in the whole curriculum, which meant she had to sit in an awful desk whilst a teacher prattled off on a subject she could probably care less for. Not having to go to school was one of the things Asuka had thoroughly enjoyed in her own village, as she was able to take learning into her own interests at her own pace. Now, it seemed, that she would be back in that awful prison-like building.

At least it was only for a short amount of time.

But, Asuka found herself really wishing that the supposed 'short amount of time' would be really short as she entered through the academy doors next to Kushina the next morning. Waking up to go to school was worse than she ever remembered, and it didn't help that she had to go early with Kushina to deal with paperwork before being assigned a classroom. Asuka had really wanted Minato to get back by that time.

The only thing more mortifying than having to go back to school after over twenty years of it, though, was being assigned into a class of five-year-olds.

Life really couldn't get much worse, Asuka decided, as one of those snot-nosed brats poked at her two years age difference for the fourth time. Another in the row across from her was whispering not as subtly as he thought he was to his friend about her background in a small village –that she was most likely an illiterate bumpkin with no skills whatsoever.

By the time the chūnin teacher had come in, Asuka was about ready to poison every single one of those five-year-olds.

Introductions was short, mostly because Asuka refused to give more than her name and a death glare towards the whole room before sitting back down. The studious portion of class was exactly how Asuka had expected it to be –awful and boring–, and she was more than ready to get into learning the ninja arts when lunch break was over.

She never let herself brief over it too long, but Asuka was curious –if not disturbed– about the ages of her temporary classmates. What they were currently learning seemed as if it should have been for someone who had matured and developed more, at least Asuka's physical age, if not a little older, yet they were already learning the basics for fighting and chakra control at such a young age. When Asuka was their age the first time around, she could barely form a two-worded sentence in English, Japanese luckily being her first language as events had turned out, and was more focused on drawing stick-figures than learning how to throw kunai and fighting kata.

It was a scary reminder of how vastly different the world Asuka grew up in, and the one she was reborn into was.

"Hitsugaya-kun, normally you hit the target with a kunai, not stare at it," that god-awful teacher, Kairi-sensei, called out. Giggles and sneers erupted from the brats around her.

Asuka flushed a red that almost matched Kushina's hair, before quickly taking up the standard throwing position Kairi-sensei had taught her minutes ago. Her lips pressed into a thin line, her narrowed eyes trained onto the target. She weighed the school kunai in her hand, noting that it was a little smaller and lighter than the one she had retrieved from the bandits.

There was a light chatter in the background from the children as she readied herself, but she blocked it once she was ready to throw. She reared her arm back, flicked her wrist, and the kunai went flying.

It missed.

The little demons once more erupted into giggles and sneers.

Asuka glared darkly at the target, her hands clenched as derogatory whispers started up once more.

This was unacceptable.

~…~

Once school was over, Asuka stormed into the guest room of Kushina's apartment, snagging the bronze kunai –she'd be damned if the emotions it triggered got into her way of proving herself to a bunch of _children_ – from her bedside table, before turning straight on her heel and heading back towards the door. Kushina had barely moved from her stunned position as Asuka barreled through the room.

"Uh –Asuka-chan?" she called, and through her rage Asuka could register the echoes of Kushina's footsteps as she followed after the younger of the two. "What's wrong?"

She continued to stomp down the staircase, her hand slowly turning white from clenching the bronze kunai too hard. She was cursing out the brats she was stuck with, and that stupid teacher that did nothing to help her when she was struggling to properly learn not only to throw kunai, but also the school kata forms. She hadn't even been able to brush against her own chakra during the ninjutsu lessons. Once again, Kairi-sensei hadn't bothered to assist her. Asuka didn't even want to think of her attempt at learning hand seals.

Asuka was absolutely furious. Kairi-sensei was pathetic. How was she actually supposed to learn anything without a proper teacher?

Asuka froze in her tracks.

Teacher.

She whirled around to the startled surprise on Kushina's face. "You!" Asuka thrust the kunai towards her to point at her.

"Did I do something wrong?" Kushina asked her, concern bending onto her face, but mostly she just looked curious. Her eyes briefed over the kunai before landing back on Asuka's form.

"Four days ago you said you wanted to be my teacher. So teach me," she said. "Because I'll be damned if I let those little snot-suckers get the better of me."

Kushina had taken a couple seconds to process what had just rushed out of Asuka's mouth, as did Asuka herself. Perhaps later that night, when her body was aching something awful, she would realize just what she had done, but in the moment she was too humiliated and prideful to care.

The teen had given a full-blown smile.

"Just call me sensei, 'ttebane!"

Kushina had taken up the teacher role surprisingly fast. She had led Asuka to an empty training grounds, briefly described that it was the training grounds that her genin team used after they graduated, before ordering Asuka to run ten laps around it for a warm up. Asuka gave the teen a mild look of horror, before her resolve took over and she was off.

The strengthening exercises were quite similar to the ones Asuka would do when she was training for dance, a slight upper hand she was incredibly thankful for. The amount of reps Kushina had made her do, however, was much more than Asuka had ever thought was possible for her to do. By the time Kushina had declared the strengthening segment of their training session finished, Asuka was ready to collapse on the ground and never get back up.

Kushina then allowed a small break.

She was looking over Asuka with a contemplative gaze as she fiddled with one of the scroll on her belt. Asuka watched as a water bottle came from it –or, was unsealed as she soon learned– and greedily took it when it was handed to her. Kushina had taken a seat next to her, advising Asuka to take small sips of it rather than drinking half of it in one go. Asuka obeyed, not eager to have an uncomfortable slosh in her stomach while they continued to train.

"You're more fit than I thought," Kushina had brought up after a couple minutes. "You were able to do more than I expected you to do –honestly, I was waiting for you to stop halfway through each exercise."

Asuka shot her a mild glare before taking another sip from the water bottle. "I had to keep fit somehow in Taiyō, since I wasn't working the land." She paused for another sip. "But honestly, the only reason I didn't stop halfway is because I want to beat a bunch of five-year-olds."

"Five-year-olds that have been training longer than you have," Kushina supplied. It was a small way to try and lift the pressure Asuka had put on herself, but Asuka was too prideful for that.

Instead, she shrugged. "I won't stand around while a bunch of brats sneer behind my back at my incompetence. Better to assert my dominance now to save their egos."

A snort escaped from Kushina's mouth. A set of giggles quickly followed after, and Asuka felt her lips twitch upwards as her teacher tried to calm herself. It wasn't long before Asuka herself had joined in with Kushina's cackling.

"Come on, Asuka-chan!" Kushina exclaimed once they had finally managed to reign in their giggles. The redhead's eyes were absolutely _shining_ , her grin looked nearly brighter than the sun. "Let's get back to work, 'ttebane!"

Asuka easily agreed. They moved onto taijutsu, where Kushina had taken time to nit-pick at Asuka's stances and to teach her each of the katas slowly, so it was easier for muscle memory. The redhead seemed delighted that Asuka was able to catch on rather quickly –dancing was to thank for that, although the katas felt strange and somewhat awkward to go through on her body– and happily declared that they would be moving onto kunai throwing.

Kunai throwing had nearly ended as bad as it had back in the academy, much to Asuka's dismay. Kushina managed to keep up her spirits a little by saying that it wasn't going to be mastered on her first day –at least one out of ten she could manage to hit the target, even if only just. It was later decided that kunai throwing would be left off until the next day.

The next lesson was what Asuka was the most interested in. She was eager to be able to feel her own chakra, to be able to manipulate it just as she could with the raw chakra in the air, and desperately hoped that Kushina would be able to help her with it. If not, then Asuka would truly be lost for what to do.

"First things first," Kushina said as she sat down on the ground, cross-legged, in front of her. "We're going to try to meditate. Look into yourself, search for your coils. Feel your chakra, but don't touch it. You could gravely damage yourself if you pull at it too much or wrongly without getting acquainted with it."

Asuka mirrored Kushina's position, nodding along to the teen's explanation, taking in the information carefully. She watched as Kushina folded her fingers into what Asuka vaguely recognized as a hand seal.

"This is the dog seal, we're going to be using it to focus our energy whilst meditating," she explained, waiting patiently for Asuka to copy the seal, and offering a mild correction to the position of her hands. "Is there anything you don't understand?"

"No, I think I'm okay for now," Asuka replied, before copying Kushina and closing her eyes.

They sat there for a long time. Over the course of their meditation session, Asuka searched everywhere she could for an inkling of her own chakra. It was impossible to find. She couldn't even find her coils, let alone any form of life force. Hell, she was pretty sure that the only thing that happened was her leg going numb from sitting cross legged so long, and her hands cramping.

Finally, she let out a sigh. She watched as Kushina opened her eyes, silently probing Asuka for an explanation.

"I can't feel anything," she admitted. "I just don't know how to look."

The redhead frowned momentarily. "You could feel other people's chakra without my seal, right?"

Asuka nodded. "Yeah. And when Taiki was healing my concussion the other day, I could feel his."

Kushina's expression brightened. "Okay! Let's try this then," she said, holding her hand out towards Asuka. "I'll summon some of my chakra over my hand. You put yours over top and see if you can feel it."

The idea was simple enough, and Asuka wasn't surprised at all when she felt that Kushina's sunny chakra matched the older teen's personality perfectly. It was warm on her hand –it almost felt like the raw chakra when Asuka would manipulate it–, and Asuka could feel herself relaxing as she continued to keep contact with the energy.

"Now, I'm going to try and push some of my chakra into your system to see if I can awaken it," Kushina explained. The teen waited for Asuka to nod before slowly edging the sunny chakra into her body. Asuka could feel the foreign chakra immediately, pooling into her hand, and she nearly jerked away when she felt something inside her own body react.

It felt somewhat invasive –something was _inside_ of her body, rushing underneath her skin– yet there wasn't a feeling of discomfort. It almost felt as if it were a lulling river connected to several large lakes inside her body. It was exhilarating to feel, to explore. Something foreign, yet familiar all the same. _This_ energy could mold in so many different ways, create so many things. Asuka could feel every brush it made inside of her –she was capable of wielding this energy. _Her own chakra_.

Kushina retracted her chakra, her eyes looked to be glowing with pride at Asuka's awestruck expression. She allowed Asuka to search through her new findings for a couple minutes, before bringing back Asuka's attention to be careful that the younger female didn't overextend her energy too soon.

"What do you think?" the redhead asked, sitting her hand back into her lap.

Asuka looked up to her, subconsciously still studying her chakra. She gave the teen a wide smile. "It's amazing, Kushina-sensei."

…

 **Well would you look at that. Asuka and Kushina time demanded to be written. Here is the start of Asuka's journey in Konoha.**

 **Guest –(I'm assuming you're SomeRandomPerson, if not I apologize) You're right, Asuka totally realizes what it takes mentally to become a ninja, because its such a foreign concept from her old world, and she's such a selfish person when it comes to her new body. I have quite a few different scenes in mind for Kakashi and Asuka's first meeting (she will definitely screw up his first impression, I assure you, although I'm not quite sure she's capable of Therapy no Jutsu. That seems more like an Uzumaki/Namikaze thing), although I'm very excited to write her and Minato's initial encounter. I've had it planned for a couple weeks now.**

 **Thank you so much for being a faithful reviewer (if you are SomeRandomPerson). And thank you so much for being a first time reviewer (if you aren't SomeRandomPerson, again sorry)! VIRTUAL HUGS LOVELY! \\(- )\**

 **Alice –thank you!**

Again, a big thank you to everyone who reviewed, I love hearing your thoughts and opinions on Asuka's story! If you have any opinions, suggestions, likes or dislikes, please feel free to tell me! I always love to hear from all of you who followed and favorite (wow, so many! Thank you!).

 **See you next time!**


	6. Mr Sunshine

Two days later, the academy classes were nearly _dedicated_ to tests. If Asuka were anyone else, she probably would have bombed all of them, but she hadn't spent hours upon hours studying to ace exams in her past life for nothing. Information was easier to retain –especially since her mind was more developed than her younger peers– so tests on things like kanji (already learnt it), and history (Hanako-baa had recreated it for her in vivid detail) could be done with her eyes closed.

She resisted the smirk that threatened to appear on her lips when she came out with top marks of her academic classes. Take _that_ , smug little bastards.

The physical portion of things, unfortunately, hadn't gotten much better even with Kushina's help after school. Her aim was slowly getting better, but it was difficult to switch between the smaller and lighter academy regulated kunai (specifically targeted for the class' general height and weight), and the set of kunai that Kushina lent her to practice with.

Taijutsu had gotten worse –not because she couldn't remember the katas, that had been rather simple for Asuka, but because she had trouble applying it in a spar. Her movements were sharp, awkward, and clumsy, and she was chagrined to go back to the apartment after each school day beaten again in a spar with a five-year-old. Kushina seemed particularly perplexed by the problem as well, as their training sessions together had went relatively smoothly regarding taijutsu practice.

Her hand seals were mediocre at best. Asuka was able to tell the difference between them all after Kushina had ordered to go through them all ten times before she went to bed and after she woke up in the morning, but it was still somewhat clumsy and she often messed up the positions of her fingers when switching between seals. Still, it was an incredible improvement from the first day when the best she could do was clapping her hands together.

Chakra control was the only thing Asuka really accelerated on from training. She moved from barely being able to hold the leaf on her forehead for more than three seconds, to thirty seconds and counting when the third day of training ended. Kushina had her expend most of her chakra into exhaustion to increase the level of her reserves –which were apparently a lot smaller than a normal ninja her age– which more often than not ended up with the redhead carrying Asuka home from both exhausted limbs and chakra. The muscle soreness had thankfully dissolved for the most part the next morning once Asuka had managed to wheedle Kushina into getting a mortar and pestle to make the muscle relaxant balm that was popular in Taiyō.

She had adapted somewhat to not being able to sense the raw chakra in the air, and the seal _had_ allowed her to differentiate her own chakra with nature's. Asuka supposed it was okay for that, but she still would prefer it when the seal was taken off and she would no longer walk through the crowded streets like a bumbling fool.

Konoha was alright, Asuka supposed. There were more opportunities than Taiyō offered, more monopolies and shops. Taiyō wasn't poor by any means, but it was quite a distance from the larger villages in the Land of Fire, and therefore didn't have many options for trading. It usually relied on its own income in the form of forged goods by farming, weaving, and such. It was interesting, to say the least, of the difference between a Hidden Village, and a small, peaceful civilian one.

"Hey, Kushina," Asuka started. The redhead was currently carrying her up the stairs towards the apartment. The strengthening exercises were becoming easier as each day passed, and Asuka was starting to feel a little less like a wet noodle after each training session, but being carried afterwards just seemed to fit into their routine. "How long until Minato-san comes back?"

Kushina hummed, unhooking one of her arms from under Asuka's knees to open her apartment door, and crouching to place her back on her feet once the pair made it inside. "Minato usually finishes his missions quickly, but it could be hard to say whether or not he allows Kakashi-kun to take the reigns a little this time. But, if I were to assume, I would say that Minato will be back before the week ends."

Asuka gave a little grimace as her shirt stuck to her sweaty back. "Okay. I'm going to shower now."

"Alright," Kushina replied, with that ever-present smile on her face. "I'm going to start dinner –unless you want to eat at Ichiraku –"

"No! Absolutely not. We've eaten ramen for the past two days."

"Fine! We're having it tomorrow, though, 'ttebane!"

Asuka gave a sort of mangled sigh, eliciting a laugh from Kushina, before the younger female stumbled into the guest room on her wobbly knees. She made a beeline for the dresser, giving a frown when she saw most of them were empty. Laundry was to be done after dinner, but she didn't want to wear something she had already sweated in again. Asuka supposed she should have gotten more when Kushina had taken her shopping that first day (most of what she got being undergarments), but she didn't think that she would be in Konoha for as long as she had.

She searched the drawers for a little longer, pausing when she came across the stray one in the bottom corner. It was weighed down with what Asuka assumed was clothing as she pulled it out to check the contents. The materials that filled the drawer weren't necessarily surprising, but _whom_ it was for was what had Asuka baffled.

 _Men's clothes_. For a man. Who apparently comes to the guest room on more than one occasion. As far as Asuka was concerned, Kushina spared no mention of a father, nor had Asuka seen anyone who could possibly be a paternal figure towards Kushina in her stay, so the only other explanation was one thing.

 _Boyfriend._

How interesting.

…

 **Mr. Sunshine**

…

Credit was due to whoever owned the contents of the drawer, they picked really comfy sweaters. It was incredibly long on her, nearly reaching past her knees (she was short for her physical age, though), and she rolled the sleeves until they sat comfortably at the middle of her forearms. It was a little lighter than navy blue, with two black strips running around where the bicep should be (a little lower than Asuka's elbows on her).

She exited the steamy bathroom, tossing her dirtied clothes into the basket by the washer on the way towards the dining table. Asuka tried to resist the smirk resting on her face, she honestly did, but she couldn't wait to hound Kushina. There was no way for the redhead to get around it.

Asuka nearly cackled when Kushina caught sight of her –the redhead's eyes had gone impossible wide, before she managed to sober her face– and calmly sat across from the other table setting. The food looked delicious as per usual, nothing less of Kushina, although Japanese cuisine was starting to get a little tasteless for Asuka. Not much she could really complain about, though, because it was going into her stomach.

When Kushina had finally seated herself across Asuka, the younger female attacked. "So who's your boyfriend?" she asked casually, dishing some tempura onto her plate. She watched through her eyelashes as Kushina's hand paused briefly.

"What are you talking about, Asuka-chan?" the redhead countered, her voice just as calm.

Asuka's eyebrows rose immediately. Kushina's game was good. "Well, there's the drawer in guest room. And in the bathroom. This shirt smells faintly manly. Care to explain that?"

"And so what if I have a boyfriend?" Kushina inquired with a scowl. She crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not any of your business, anyways."

"Fine," Asuka relented for the moment, thinking of ways to possibly hound her later. They ate in silence for a couple minutes, before Asuka brought up a topic that she had mulling over for a while. "So Minato-san, what are his specialties? You're a fūinjutsu master, and have your chakra chains."

Kushina regarded Asuka with slight suspicion, but Asuka only showed the curiosity on her face. Whoever this man was, she wanted to know. She would apparently be trusting in his opinion about how dangerous her ability could be, so Asuka would like to know a little more about this man that Kushina seemed to be acquainted with.

"He's good at fūinjutsu, like I am. His teacher, Jiraiya –who we originally wanted to check on your abilities– had taught him when he became a genin. I guess he's sort of like a father to him now, though," Kushina started. Asuka watched her while attentively listening. "Jiraiya has also put him through sage training –which is kind of similar to what you can do, in a way– and he created his own seal that essentially teleports him places. He's also working on his own jutsu! Minato's very intelligent and talented."

Wow, this guy seemed fairly accomplished. Not to mention, Kushina certainly knew quite a bit about this man –oh. _Oh._

"Ha!" Asuka exclaimed loudly, standing up sharply from her seat. Kushina looked at her startled. Then Asuka pointed her chopsticks at the redhead accusingly. "Minato-san is your boyfriend!"

"W-what?!" Kushina flushed an unsightly red that clashed with her mass of hair. Asuka expected the teen to turn into a stuttering mess, but she was sorely mistaken. "Didn't I just tell you it wasn't any of your business? Furthermore, you can't just go parading through people's personal things, dattebane! And don't think for one second that you'll try to scare him away, because I swear that I'll – _what_ is with that smug face?!"

Asuka was grinning triumphantly, as she sat back down in her seat. "Oh? Do I look smug? I sure feel smug right now." She made a show of buffing her nails on Minato's sweater, earning a narrowed look from Kushina. "Relax, I'm not going to try to scare him away from you."

Kushina seemed to unwind slightly, although the suspicion remained. "You aren't?"

"Please," Asuka scoffed, popping another tempura into her mouth. "I want to commend the guy. Anyone who willingly wants to spend time with you deserves a medal." She flashed Kushina a teasing smirk.

"Why you little brat, Asuka-chan!"

Asuka just laughed as she continued her dinner.

~…~

A couple of days later, Asuka was out in the spacy living area early in the morning. She had taken to the habit of rising fairly early, around an hour earlier than she needed to get up for academy classes –although there were none today– to continue her dance conditioning. It was a pleasant surprise to find that all the training with Kushina had increased Asuka's stability whilst dancing, and working with her increased strength was freeing. She was capable of performing things that she had only _dreamed_ of doing in her past life, and now that she had a tighter reign on her own chakra, she found that she could use the energy to enhance her speed and strength even more, although that would quickly tire her out in the end.

She was just recovering from her cool down stretches, now moving through the kitchen to prepare breakfast for her and Kushina, when there were two firm knocks on the door. Asuka looked over curiously, as there hadn't been any company for the duration of her stay in Konoha thus far. She quietly padded over towards the door; spatula in hand, and quickly debated whether or not she would reach the peephole, before shrugging it off and opening the door.

Asuka saw sunshine. Or, hair that looked like sunshine, rather.

Sky blue eyes stared down at her with dumbfounded curiosity, jade green eyes looked up at him with a questioning blank face.

"Uh…" the man started. He looked like he was around Kushina's age, Asuka decided as she studied him. He looked slightly worn, but otherwise healthy, with a standard Konoha hitai-ate tied around his forehead.

They stood in silence for a few seconds longer, and the sunny haired teen switched his gaze onto Asuka's figure –or, what was on Asuka's figure. It clicked almost immediately.

"This is your shirt?" Asuka said, using her free hand to pluck at the soft sweater material, which she had slipped on after her cool down. Minato nodded, his face blank, but eyes calculating. "I'm not giving it back." Minato looked like he was about to open his mouth to reply, but Asuka cut him off, holding up the spatula in her hand. "Would you like some breakfast?"

Half an hour later, Asuka had a small stack of pancakes on three separate plates. Minato had been watching the whole process, although Asuka supposed she could just chalk it down under ninja paranoia that she could poison the food, so didn't mention anything of it. Neither spoke more than two short sentences, opting to wait until Kushina had woken up and come to the table instead.

Kushina hadn't taken long after the aroma of food started drifting through the apartment. The smell was somewhat unfamiliar, as pancakes were a western food, but the scene Kushina had sleepily stumbled upon was probably the most unfamiliar she would ever experience.

Asuka had taken a seat across from Minato, deciding that Kushina would probably enjoy the chance to sit next to him. Minato had given her a quirk of his head and a small smile of appreciation once he had realized what Asuka had done, and she offered the slightest twitch of her lips in return. Normally, Asuka would have drowned the man in her personality without much thought by now, but this man was apparently very important to Kushina, so she would wait to see how to go around Minato. Asuka didn't want to think much of one of her more considerate actions –it had been a long seven years in which she hadn't thought much of other people's feelings– nor did she particularly want to think about how sibling-like her and Kushina's relationship was morphing into. She was only in Konoha for Minato's examination, after all.

"Good morning, Kushina," Minato and Asuka chorused accidently, sharing a brief look of surprise before looking back to the stumbling redhead.

"Morning, Minato," Kushina replied with a goofy smile, and Asuka could feel the smirk tugging onto her lips. That smirk grew wider as soon as Kushina's eyes landed on her seated form and widened. "You! What did you do?"

There was an accusatory finger in her face, but Asuka merely gave Kushina a sarcastic smile. "I don't know what you're talking about, Kushina. I've hardly said anything to your hubby."

From across the table, Minato sputtered into his water, whereas Kushina had become a red mess –although the redhead hadn't stayed still for long. Somehow, lunging towards Asuka and giving her a noogie seemed to have morphed into a common occurrence in Kushina's enraged reactions to Asuka's teasing over the past few days. Asuka gave a small shriek as she tried to push the older teen away as roughened knuckles were ground into the top of her skull. It had escalated so much that Asuka had fallen out of her chair with a grunt and Kushina had pinned her to the ground while continuing to rub her knuckles into Asuka's head.

"You little brat!"

"Kushina stop, you asshole!"

"Then take it back you little twerp, or it will be _thirty_ laps around the field!"

"Can _you_ even run thirty laps you fatass?!"

"We can also practice falling safely again!" That exercise involved Kushina shoving Asuka as hard as she could from numerous different positions and angles, and Asuka twisting and rolling to maintain the least amount of damage. That had caused days of pain, and no sort of prior dance training could have prepared her for that particular exercise.

"Kushina, no!"

They both froze as soon as they heard a breath of laughter from the company they had both momentarily forgotten. That breath of a chuckle soon turned into full-blown laughter, and it had both of Kushina and Asuka turning red from embarrassment.

On a side note, Asuka decided that if Minato hadn't already been involved with Kushina, she would have been all over his ass, especially when he smiled like that, despite the large age gap.

"Sorry," Minato choked out between breaths of laughter. "I haven't seen something that entertaining in a while." He managed to retain his laughter fairly quickly, although that gorgeous smile remained on his face. Asuka briefly thought that the man was nearly the sun personified –hair, smile and all. "Thanks, Kushina, and…"

Kushina was quick to loop an arm around Asuka's shoulder. "This is Hitsugaya Asuka-chan!" she introduced with one of her own grins. "She was included as a small part of uh…collateral damage for the lack of a better word, in my last mission. We've been waiting for you to get back!"

Minato nodded, his face quickly calming into a more serious expression, although his demeanor remained light. "That's why Hokage-sama asked for me to come here, I suppose." His sky eyes turned onto Asuka as she stood up from the floor to sit back down at the table, Kushina following suit. "What seems to be the problem, Hitsugaya-kun?"

"Well, _I_ don't think it's a problem –" Asuka started, only to be cut off by Kushina.

"The only problem you have is being beat out by five-year-olds, apparently," the redhead waved it off; ignoring the glare she was receiving with a teasing smile. Kushina's attention turned solely onto Minato's whilst telling a tailored story of the mission in Taiyō. As that was happening, Asuka dug into her pancakes –her mouth almost watering at the familiar breakfast food that she would make for her niece and nephew. "You see, Asuka-chan has this ability…"

It was almost like Asuka was back in her brother's apartment, a couple days after his wife had come back from her station overseas, having a family breakfast and catching up on the events she had missed since she had left months ago. It was heartwarming, watching Kushina and Minato interact –his eyes only for her, her heart firmly attached to him– yet it was a chilling experience at the same time. It made her long for her real home so much more, to spend time with her family again.

Kushina explained to Minato about walking in on Asuka practicing photosynthesis with the nature chakra, to the mass explosion (which apparently had scorched several meters of trees around the camp radius. It was a wonder how no one died post-explosion), to finding Asuka's burnt and unconscious body absorbing the raw chakra at an unnatural and worrying pace. Minato's expression throughout the whole explanation was mostly blank, except for the calculating edge in his eyes. Once Kushina had run out of information to tell him, the male teen switched his gaze onto Asuka with a slight frown twitching on his lips.

He sat back in his chair, giving a brief 'thank you for the meal' once his plate was empty, and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll admit that I'm not the greatest with Sage Mode –it takes me a while to gather up the Natural Energy, whereas you seem to be doing it unconsciously without the seal in place. Jiraiya-sensei put me through enough training, so I should be able to determine what needs to be done in terms of letting you go, or keeping you to train until an incident like that won't happen again."

"The only reason it happened in the first place was because I was attacked," Asuka defended. She didn't necessarily want to stay in Konoha longer than she already was.

"Yes," Minato agreed easily. "But, who's to say it won't happen again. A large explosion like that won't be left alone by travelers and enemy ninja, so you could end up being targeted depending on how strong your chakra signature was at the scene. Chakra is a fickle thing, Hitsugaya-kun. The signature it leaves at places with high emotions is more likely to leave a lasting impression –so a sensor would easily depict you from the crowd. And even if that isn't the case, the people of your village know of your ability to some extent, correct?" When Asuka nodded, the sunny haired teen continued with his deductions, much to her dismay. "Then it could be as something as simple as mentioning it to the wrong person when asked."

Asuka's frown deepened, as did Minato's from across her. He continued.

"The ninja world is something civilians –even ones from Hidden Villages– are unfamiliar with. While _we_ more or less can depict the difference between ninja and civilian, your village, who has no prior interactions with ninja other than Kushina's team and your village elder, has no idea who they are giving information off to. Ninja are trained to be sneaky –to fool other ninja– so the probability of a civilian guessing the identity of an infiltrator is next to none if there is no blaringly obvious external sign."

Minato was incredibly intelligent, and while Asuka wasn't particularly fond of his logical reasoning, she could respect it well enough.

"So does this mean that I can never return to Taiyō?" Asuka asked him.

He shook his head. "I never said that. I guess I got a little off track. What I mean is that, without proper control you may end up injuring your fellow villagers if, say, a scenario where an enemy grabs you and you lash out in defense happens. It's our job as ninja to keep civilians safe, so, unfortunately, your time remaining in Konoha will all depend on how much control you can show me. Does that make sense?"

"I don't necessarily like it," Asuka said honestly, weaving her fingers together to rest her chin on top of them. "But I can't argue with your logic. It would probably be bad if I accidently set off an explosion in the middle of the village."

Minato offered her a small smile. "Thank you, Hitsugaya-kun. I'm sorry that it has to be this way."

Asuka offered him a thin smile in return. She wasn't fond of having all of these decisions made for her –which seemed to be happening more often than not– but Minato had given her the details she needed to come to terms with it. Kushina had surely chosen her man well.

"Well!" Kushina clapped her hands together. "It's a good thing we've been working on your chakra control then!"

"Amongst many other painful things, yes," Asuka agreed. "But remember, that the only chakra I've been able to use before you but the seal on me was raw chakra." She glanced at Minato, offering him this information as he took it in.

"Raw chakra?" he questioned.

"The term I used instead of Natural Energy," Asuka explained. "Natural Energy, essentially, is just raw chakra. The chakra inside our bodies is more diluted –safer for humans to operate with as it has the physical and spiritual components to it."

Minato nodded, looking more intrigued as the conversation continued. Asuka was as well, because she never really had anyone to talk about raw chakra with. "So you're a fairly talented sensor, I'm assuming."

"Well, right now I can't tell the difference between you or the lamp," Asuka said. She glanced over to the redhead who was listening to the two of them rattle off with a slightly accusing look. "Kushina's seal has cut raw chakra off from me completely, so I'm not able to sense anything. I hadn't even known that I wasn't using my own chakra until I came here and your Hokage had me attend that academy for chakra control."

Minato hummed, and it was silent for a moment. "That's interesting. Sage Mode consists of merging Natural Energy with your own chakra to increase the power of ordinary moves, whereas you simply seem to be able to manipulate it without 'diluting' it, I suppose you could say. Have you ever thought of becoming a kunoichi, Hitsugaya-kun?"

"I wouldn't try with that, Minato," Kushina cut in before Asuka could reply. "Asuka has already made her own decision about this."

Asuka shot Kushina a grateful look. It seemed that the redhead had listened and respected Asuka's wishes.

"That's a shame," Minato hummed. "You've got an incredible talent. And you're fairly intelligent, but I suppose it's your own decision." He stood up from his seat, offering a kind smile to both Asuka and Kushina. "Why don't I examine you now so we can get you back home, then?"

Her only home had been back in her first life with her true family, but Asuka appreciated Minato's gesture nonetheless.

"Let's do it."

~…~

Kushina had waited until the three of them arrived to the usual training grounds to take the seal off of Asuka's stomach. Unfortunately, no demand back at the apartment was answered to, and it almost felt like an agonizingly long time for both Asuka and Kushina to change into proper clothing before they could finally head out.

Now though, it seemed well worth the wait.

She could sense everything –from Minato's mass of swirling chakra, to every position of every tree on the training grounds, to that stray squirrel scampering through the branches. Asuka took a moment to inhale deeply, feeling as if she could finally breathe after so long. The raw chakra nipped at her skin and buzzed around her again. She felt peaceful for once during her stay in Konoha.

Once Asuka opened her eyes from her euphoria, she saw the mildly amused faces that belonged to Minato and Kushina. Just as quickly though, Minato's face turned serious.

"It looks to be surrounding you," he noted, walking in a slow circle around Asuka as she stood still. "Almost like it's magnetized to you. Has it always been like this?"

Asuka pursed her lips and shook her head. "Hanako-baa and I really only noticed it around a year ago."

"Probably around the time your chakra coils started properly settling and developing, then," Minato mused. "Can you give me a demonstration of you manipulating it?"

"So far I've only done really small experimenting," Asuka told him, though she held her hand out regardless. She urged the raw chakra to gather around it, always keeping it at a steady flow. It glowed slightly under the shade of the tree they were standing under. "I usually do this when I'm bored. It gets a little warm on my skin, but that's it."

Minato squatted down so he was eye-level with her hand. "That's fascinating," he supplied. His analyzing eyes briefly glanced to Asuka's face. "Is that all?"

"Photosynthesis," Kushina piped in. "Show him that."

Asuka nodded, turning her head to survey the area for any plants she could use for display. Kushina had pointed out a bush that didn't look to be fairing too well, and Asuka was quick to make her way over. She sat down cross-legged in front of the bush like she had done so many times back in the forests of Taiyō when she was experimenting.

The raw chakra moved as easily to her will as it ever had, trailing in a slow stream above that underdeveloped budding bush with each wave of her hand. Minato was crouching next to her, almost watching like he were hypnotized as the raw chakra's light opened up the closed flower buds.

"It took me a while to figure out, and a couple burnt fingers, but I managed to manipulate it so it acts as substitute sunlight," Asuka explained. Minato continued to watch the chakra, but Asuka knew he was listening. It was sort of thrilling, to finally be able to relay her findings and discoveries to someone who understood what raw chakra was and how it worked. "It jumpstarts photosynthesis inside the plant cells, which allows them to produce the sugars more efficiently –thus, allowing them to grow."

"It's beautiful," Kushina observed from Asuka's right.

Asuka grinned a little, before she slowed her hand's movement. "But, I have to keep the chakra moving at all times, otherwise this happens." She halted her hand's movement completely while keeping control over the energy, and the chakra that had gathered brightened with the rise in temperature. Barely a second later, it detonated.

While Kushina and Minato were trained ninja, and had fast enough reflexes to avoid damage from the minor explosion, Asuka did not retract her outstretched hand fast enough. She grimaced at the familiar feeling of singed fingers, something equivalent to placing one's hand on a hot stove, and tried her best to ignore the throbbing. The bush was not so lucky as well, nearly half of it burnt beyond repair.

"That's more or less what happened when I was kidnapped," Asuka told Minato. "Except the raw chakra gathered around me from hysteria was on a much larger scale than this."

"Are you hurt?" Kushina questioned Asuka. Apparently the redheaded teen had caught her grimace.

Asuka did her best to wave it off. "It's fine. I've dealt with this kind of burn before. I'll gather some herbs before we leave so I can make a burn cream."

Minato raised his eyebrow, but didn't press upon her statement. "Is that everything you can do?" he asked instead. It wasn't in a condescending tone, so Asuka didn't take much offence. He seemed more interested than anything.

"Yeah, Hanako-baa warned me against experimenting too much with it, so I didn't do anything beyond this."

"Hanako-san mentioned that she had wanted to contact Jiraiya to have him check on your abilities back when we were discussing whether to bring you to Konoha or not," Kushina commented. Asuka hadn't known that fact. "She could never connect with him, which was why she agreed taking you here would be the next best thing for your abilities. Apparently she knew Jiraiya since he was a boy."

Asuka certainly hadn't known that. "I guess that makes sense, too. You guys could have just told me that, you know."

Kushina raised her eyebrow. "Would you have willingly come with us?"

"Probably not."

"I thought so."

"Still would have been nice to know."

At that time, Minato cleared his throat, apparently returning from whatever train of thought he had. Both Asuka and Kushina turned their attention to the blond. "I've thought of two options Hitsugaya-kun can have without extra details. The first is that you stay in Konoha to train your abilities –of course, that being said, you would have to attend your academy classes as well. The second option is that Kushina and I devise a seal based off of the one she had given you, but instead of completely blocking your abilities it dulls it down so a large explosion won't happen again. That way, you can live comfortably in your village without posing a threat to fellow civilians no matter how accidental."

If Asuka was being honest, neither option sounded desirable. The first was basically asking her to train to become a ninja –which, might have been what the Hokage was hoping for, since the war didn't seem as if it was going to calm any time soon– whereas the second was basically leaving her like a powerless dope. She was born with these abilities, and what Minato was suggesting was to basically take away her re-birthright. Asuka didn't think she could bare to be just a normal civilian like she once was, but she still didn't have a reason to become a ninja and risk her life daily.

"Can…I take time to think of it?" Asuka asked, tilting her head to look into Minato's eyes.

He nodded. "Of course. You can give me your decision tomorrow. How about we meet up tomorrow, after your classes? I'll bring Kakashi, and we can go for ramen or something."

Kushina's whole demeanor brightened at the mention of ramen.

Asuka sighed, but nodded nonetheless. "Okay. Sounds good."

~…~

Sleep didn't come very easy that night. Asuka knew the decision should have been incredibly easy to make. She didn't want to be a ninja, so the only logical decision was to return to Taiyō with a modified seal. Yet, there was that poisonous bronze kunai sitting on the bedside table, giving a glare of light from that sliver of moon that peeked through the curtains. It was a blaring reminder that, while Asuka didn't want to be a ninja, she didn't want to be as helpless as she had been throughout the bandit ambush.

She felt the need to talk about it with someone. Her brother had always been the person she went to for all her problems, and vice versa. And while she didn't have him anymore, she figured that Kushina would be a substitute.

Two hesitant knocks on the snoring redhead's bedroom later, Asuka found herself sitting across from Kushina at the dining table with a mug of tea.

"You can't decide, can you?" Kushina pinpointed after a couple minutes of tired silence. Asuka didn't nod to confirm the redhead's suspicions, her silence was enough. Kushina sighed. "Asuka-chan, I would be lying if I said that I wouldn't miss you, but I mean what I said earlier that I wanted everything to be your decision."

Asuka absentmindedly played with the natural chakra emitting from the steam of her tea. "I meant what I said earlier too, about not wanting to become a ninja, but wanting to be stronger. Being in Konoha and training with you…I feel as if I _have_ become stronger, but if I want to keep improving than the only option is to work towards the path of a ninja. That's the only way I would ever be allowed to train here. Back in Taiyō, it felt safe. I didn't really have to constantly worry about my life being in danger until those bandits came along. I was content to be able to freely explore the capabilities of my ability, but in order to keep the village safe I would have to give that up."

It was silent between the two females once more, with the exception of the ticking of the clock as its hand slowly crept past midnight.

"You know," Kushina started. "Sometimes people come up to a crossroads, and they just have to take a risk –consequences be damned. You never know, the decision might not be eternal. One day you might decide to turn around," she said, pausing to take a sip of her tea before giving Asuka a warm smile. "And you know, Asuka-chan? I'll always support whatever decision you make, 'ttebane."

Her heart clenched. And Asuka swallowed, before slowly nodding. "Kushina, I think I've made my decision. Thank you."

"It's no problem, Asuka-chan." Kushina yawned widely, before standing up. "Now come on, it's time to get to bed."

…

 **Sorry that took a bit longer to update –I recently started my new job, so I won't have as much time to write chapters as I used to. I hope my lovely followers will still continue to enjoy what's to come, though!**

 **It appears that when Minato and Asuka are put together, they become huge dorks. No regrets.**

 **Recently I received a review that brought up the negative effects on ninja society due to Asuka being taken to Konoha. While I would normally reply to username reviewers (recently, anyways) by message, I wanted to address this here in case anyone else had the same concerns.**

 **First of all, I hope this chapter has cleared some things up a bit. And while I don't believe that the actions of taking one child temporarily out of her village with her guardian-like character's permission (Hanako, in case anyone was wondering, because any child who isn't a ninja isn't technically considered an adult and therefore needs permission like any other child), would eventually cause a civilian-rebellion against ninja society, I can kind of see where you were getting at. Although, Danzo has essentially done the exact same thing on a much larger scale and turned them into his personal army, and there weren't necessarily any negative repercussions pertaining ninja society. And while I'm sure Hiruzen would have loved to have Asuka join his ninja ranks during the war (as suggested by the academy time, and extended training), the choice is entirely up to Asuka.**

 **I hope that cleared things up. Also, I'm sorry that my story apparently gave you physical pain..?**

 **Anyone feel free to mention anything else they're concerned about!**

 **Alrighty, Guest replies:**

 **Alice –thank you!**

 **SomeRandomPerson –I'm actually really impressed with myself that I managed to guess it was you. That aside, thank you so much for being a faithful reviewer! It means so much to hear your feedback and to hear that you're enjoying the story so far! Ohoho –I'm glad that you thought Asuka asking Kushina for help as funny as I did. And don't worry; she has many Complexes to come.**

A big thanks to those of you who favorite/followed/and reviewed! It's great to hear what you guys think, and how I can improve to make my writing even better. Please feel free to tell me what you guys think of Asuka (good and bad), her relationships, what you hope to see and what you predict! Or even anything in general I guess :P

 **See you all next time (the fated meeting with our lovely asshole, Kaka-chan), and Asuka's decision.**

 **~keats**


	7. Decisions, Decisions

Asuka had never experienced such an overwhelming intensity of a mixture of emotions before; sure, ever since Kushina had come into her life Asuka seemed to have a shorter fuse for nearly everything, but it had never really been such a problem to force down her more violent urges. Now, though, as she was sitting next to this short, condescending mass of pure _asshole_ , Asuka could feel her whole world tip upside down and slightly diagonal towards catastrophe.

She wasn't sure if she was showing any outward signs –not that she really cared at the moment– other than the slight burning smell around the area and sharp rise in temperature. _He_ surely didn't seem bothered by it; he was hardly concerned with her presence at all. The brat hardly said more than two words to her (his name, and a scoff if it counts), before ultimately deciding that she was not worth his precious time, and therefore deemed her worthy enough of ignoring her existence entirely.

He was good at feigning ignorance at her burning glare into the side of his old-man-haired head; either that or he didn't actually _know_ she was glaring at him. Judging by his holier-than-thou reaction to her, though, and the hitai-ate tied around his forehead, he very well knew of the spite brewing in her stomach towards him, but just chose to push it into the dark corner.

The other two were chattering happily, completely ignorant of the little rage-fest Asuka was digging herself into. The happy and flirty atmosphere around them made Asuka want to claw her eyes out, because she was so incredibly frustrated and miserable sitting next to the pint-sized jackass; it made her resent Kushina and Minato's easy atmosphere. She would much rather be a third wheel by her lonesome than be shoved next to the silver-haired mini soldier as an attempt for company.

"Okay," Asuka snapped just as her ramen was served. His bulk of static chakra shifted just the slightest, which let her know that despite his dismissive body posture, he was still listening. She plowed on. "What the hell is your problem with me?"

The name of Asuka's pint-sized asshole problem? Hatake Kakashi.

Kakashi made a noise that sounded caught between a groan and a scoff, before turning his body not even an inch towards her. "I don't need to waste my time here with a child when I can be training," he revealed with a bored tone. He didn't even grace Asuka with a glance.

The pair of chopsticks Asuka was holding snapped apart with white knuckles and started smoking slightly in her grip. Child? Her? Has this kid seen himself lately? He was shorter than she was, and she was almost certain that he was a year younger. Asuka's teeth clenched together.

"Oh?" Asuka spat out carefully. "So sorry that the baby doesn't get his way today. Perhaps he can learn to pull up his diapers and suck it up instead of being a pretentious bastard."

His dark gaze sharply met her eyes with a glare, and Asuka matched expressions without looking away from the emotional intensity beneath his eyes. Part of her registered that a normal child shouldn't have had such a severe reaction to a mild insult like the one she had thrown at him, and that the jump his chakra gave wasn't one that just read annoyance, but she was too pissed with him to care at the moment. Her mind encouraged his reaction, because she firmly believed that the kid needed to knock his attitude down a few pegs.

"I don't expect someone as pathetic as _you_ to understand," he hissed through the mask pulled up to his nose. Even with half of his expression covered, Asuka had to resist a flinch at the murderous look in his eyes. He looked Asuka up and down with a condescending sneer. "You couldn't even catch up to what my level was a year ago if you took ten years."

Asuka narrowed her eyes. Kakashi was quite adept with spitting fire, she acknowledged grudgingly, and it was hard to fight fire with fire and receive desired results. No, Asuka realized, she would have to fight this battle in a much more advanced and different way. When dealing with Kakashi, she had to take a very specific approach. It involved having to focus on using low-key snide remarks opposed to blatant sneers. It also involved swallowing a bit of pride.

"My apologies for being unworthy of your presence," Asuka replied with a bright, sarcastic smile, "Kaka- _pyon_."

Kakashi sputtered slightly into his ramen –he was fast; she hadn't even seen him remove his mask to eat– before whirling around to glare at her once more. "' _Kaka-pyon_?'" he repeated distastefully.

"Well, yes," Asuka confirmed with a falsely sweet smile, lacing her fingers under chin, her voice taking on a childish tone. "A _pathetic_ little _child_ like me should be using honorifics to reflect as such, no? Does it displease you, Kaka- _pyon_?"

"Yes! Cut it out right now," Kakashi growled. Asuka felt like she was absolutely _soaring_ at the displeased inflation his static chakra released.

"Sorry, Kaka- _pyon_. I am a child, after all."

Kakashi turned to his ramen and simmered in silence, all the while Asuka was smiling gleefully into her meal. Oh, she made him eat his words all right.

Asuka: 1, Kakashi: 0

It wasn't until Asuka had finished her bowl of ramen (Kakashi had literally inhaled his between swift mask-shifting movements. How he did either of those without letting her peek at his face was baffling) that Kushina and Minato had actually acknowledged her presence for more than one and a half seconds. Kakashi was still frustrated and sore, if his chakra said anything about it, and therefore dedicated the rest of his time at the ramen stand to ignoring Asuka's existence once more. She didn't mind that too much, as it had been her that had silenced him this time and not her unworthiness.

"Hitsugaya-kun," Minato's voice calmly said whilst Asuka was pushing her empty bowl of ramen away. She turned her head to the side to meet his steady blue gaze on the other side of Kushina. "Have you made your decision on what we discussed yesterday?"

Asuka couldn't help the slight grimace that tugged on her lips, noticing that Kakashi turned ever so slightly to listen in on the conversation that involved his teacher and some pathetic child, while mentally mulling over the conversation she and Kushina had in the middle of the night. Eventually, she slowly nodded her head while casting a brief glance to see Kushina's curious stare. Asuka hadn't even told Kushina what decision she had come to.

"Yeah," she started, taking her bottom lip between her teeth. "To be honest, neither choice is desirable. You're either telling me that I have to lay down my life and become a ninja of Konoha, or turning my abilities theoretically useless while I live normally back in my own village."

Kakashi's attentiveness seemed to be rising, although his body language feigned disinterest. Kushina resolved to blatantly staring at Asuka while the caramel haired girl's gaze remained locked with Minato.

"I understand that, Hitsugaya-kun," Minato's eyes were sympathetic. "Hokage-sama would be willing to negotiate further options if we could get his time, but these two seem to be the simplest."

Asuka nodded. "I know." She sent another glance to Kushina with a small smile. "Someone told me that I just have to take a risk –consequences be damned," she said. Kushina responded with a bright grin, her expression turning hopeful.

"Which is why," Asuka continued, keeping her eyes trained on Kushina as she did so. "I want to go back to Taiyō."

…

 **Decisions, Decisions**

…

Instead of ninja-running to the small village to crunch down travel time, which would have been difficult with no Futaaimaru to ride, Kushina decided that she and Asuka would be walking somewhat briskly to Taiyō. Instead of a day and a half without resting, Kushina said that it would take closer to four or five days without the option of taking short cuts that only trained ninja would normally be able to make.

Theoretically, the time frame would more or less work perfectly for the time the paperwork should be processed in, if Asuka and Kushina were to spend no more than a day in Taiyō and jog back to Konoha –according to Minato, at least, who had offered to get the paperwork dealt with while they were gone. Asuka had originally grimaced at the thought of jogging all the way back to the Hidden Village and only stopping to sleep at night, but it had eventually been resolved that she would have to become used to that sort of transportation at a full sprint.

It was during the second night, just as Kushina had finished setting up protective seals around the camp while talking Asuka through setting up a proper campsite, that Asuka had brought up her interest in the art.

"So, on top of our enhanced training regime," Asuka started as she dug out a fire pit, making sure the grass was still intact like Kushina had instructed. "You're going to teach me fūinjutsu, right?"

Kushina had offered her a surprised look, pausing only to unseal two sleeping bags from a scroll inside one of her many pouches, before replying. "Really? You want to learn my specialty, Asuka-chan?"

Asuka shrugged. "It seems interesting –and handy. Besides, if the request that I become your student is granted, it's only natural for me to learn my sensei's specialty."

Perhaps Asuka was buttering it up a little, by adding in the official _sensei_ title, but she figured if the Hokage approved the paperwork Minato had handed in, she would be calling Kushina her sensei more often. Maybe Kushina deserved the title, too, after everything the redhead had done for Asuka during her stay in Konoha. They had squabbles, sure, but Kushina had agreed to train her when Asuka's pride had taken a blow. She had expanded Asuka's knowledge so much already; she had helped Asuka get just that much stronger than before.

Asuka's words had served their purpose, though, because Kushina was absolutely _glowing_. "Of course I'll teach you fūinjutsu! Even if I'm not your sensei, I'll teach you, Asuka-chan!" the redhead declared. She sat down next to Asuka, waiting patiently for her to set up the tinder and start the fire. When Kushina spoke again, her voice was a little more subdued, but relatively enthusiastic all the same. "Isn't that a bit ambitious, though? What with the main goal along with kekkei genkai training, not to mention trying to improve your taijutsu, there isn't going to be much time for fūinjutsu lessons."

"Well, yeah," Asuka considered momentarily, grimacing at the thought of her crappy taijutsu skills. "I have to set a target, but maybe we'll do fūinjutsu after the main goal is accomplished. That has quite a bit of requirements in itself, and training my kekkei genkai is one of the main reasons I'm staying in Konoha. I don't suppose we can skip the taijutsu thing."

"All ninja need something to fall back onto in a pinch. Taijutsu just happens to be it. Sorry Asuka-chan, but it's important that your combat skills are enough to keep you alive on its own," Kushina chided.

Asuka sighed, her lips falling into pout. "I thought as much." She pondered on the topic a bit more. "Maybe I just need more practice using taijutsu in a fighting scenario to make it…I don't know, settle in?"

Kushina shrugged. "Maybe. We'll get right on that, then."

They had a small meal before Kushina told Asuka to tuck into her sleeping bag while the redhead would keep watch. Asuka hadn't thought a watch shift would be necessary with the protection seals in place, but Kushina had said it was better to be safe than sorry. Ninja paranoia, Asuka supposed. The younger of the two then proposed that they split the watch in half so neither would be trudging on the next day without sleep.

The next few days had that same routine; walk, lunch break, walk, stop for the night, split the watches, and then head out once more in the morning. It was a relatively peaceful trek, with only a few minor mishaps that were easily dealt with.

It was mid-morning by the time the path to Taiyō had become increasingly familiar to Asuka. She could spot the forest she had spent so many of her hours in for the past year of her life, and the fields where most of the farmers were working diligently to better their crops. As they entered the village, Asuka was reminded of just how friendly the natives were after having to stop for a conversation with nearly every person she had passed. Konoha had certainly spoiled her on that aspect, the only social interaction she had was with Kushina, and occasionally with Minato. People in ninja villages generally tended to mind their own business, and it was nice to not have to feign a smile with every conversation. It had taken Asuka a little time to get back into the swing of her polite façade with the villagers, but she had managed all the same by the time she and Kushina had made it to the apothecary.

"Hanako-baa, it's Asuka, are you in or are have you finally keeled over?" Asuka called into the small shop as she opened the door. Kushina silenced the jingle of the bells almost as quickly as they started ringing, as if it were a habit. "Oi, you old hag, get over here!"

Kushina delivered a light smack on the back of Asuka's head. "Be more respectful to the woman who mentored you, Asuka-chan."

Asuka scoffed, but didn't give a retort.

The old woman Asuka had regarded akin to someone like a guardian stepped from behind the back door moments later. Her beady features were contorted into a scowl; a pair of safety goggles resting on her forehead and a mask sitting around her neck. She looked to be just finishing up one of the more critical concoctions offered in the apothecary.

"Oh, it's you. Got checked out already? I was hoping you'd be gone longer."

Ah, that was the homecoming Asuka was looking forward to.

"Good for you that I'm not here long then," Asuka countered, crossing her arms around her chest with a scowl.

Hanako-baa's eyes narrowed. "You're staying there, I take it." Asuka spared a glance at Kushina, who was already looking at her. They nodded together. Asuka was momentarily baffled when the old woman turned on her heel and stalked to return to the back rooms. "Well, brat? Are you coming? If you're going to be gallivanting around like a half-assed kunoichi, you're going to need to learn something a bit more lethal than perfumes."

It took less than a second for Asuka to process the old woman's words before she dashed to follow after Hanako-baa with a shit-eating grin.

"See you later, Kushina!" the caramel-haired girl called just as she passed through the back door.

~…~

For the remainder of their stay in Taiyō, Asuka stayed holed up in the back rooms with Hanako-baa, absorbing every inch of information she could wheedle from the woman. She wasn't too sure what Kushina had been up to during that time, and didn't think it important to ask once the two were back out on the road towards Konoha.

It hadn't taken long to gather what few meager belongings Asuka had left in Taiyō, and just as she was about to leave the apothecary, Hanako-baa had given her one last parting gift. The old bat had actually given Asuka her _book_ ; the holy grail of all herbal concoctions and theories that the old woman had created throughout her life, perfumes, creams, poisons, and all. Asuka had gaped a little when the worn notebook was placed into her hands –to which both Kushina and Hanako-baa had given a snort; it wasn't often when Asuka would look completely awestruck– and even hugged the old woman during their goodbye.

From that point, it was straight jogging back to Konoha. Asuka would have been spitting insults if she could bear to spare some precious breath, whereas she was almost certain that Kushina was laughing from beside her. It didn't stop her from giving the redhead one of the deadliest glares she could muster up, and the tired grumbling Asuka gave once they stopped for the night.

The journey back unfortunately didn't go as smoothly as the way to Taiyō. The third day in, they were attacked.

Their assailants were composed of a group of seven civilian chakra ranges. Kushina had easily taken on five of them as they lunged out of the thick foliage, responding immediately by stopping her brisk run to judo-throw one of the closest thugs.

Asuka had stumbled to a stop when she caught the fast flux of unfamiliar chakra, nearly running into one of the guys that had deemed her as an easy target. The one in her immediate sights was a bit of a lanky guy, tall yet muscled. He was assessing her as a piece of trash, and that had sparked an indignant memory of her meeting with one Hatake Kakashi. And she wasn't about to lose to _that_ little shit, of all people.

She tried to reign in her surprise as best as she could, reacting as fast as she could to the man in front of her. He wasn't by any means the same level as the bandits that had attacked her back in Taiyō a few weeks back, or even her class in the academy, but he didn't seem to be a stranger to combat. Asuka did her best to take advantage of the close quarters between her and the lanky assailant, striking her elbow out into his stomach –one of the few things she had actually retained from taijutsu class that didn't involve butchering katas– and quickly hitting him once again in his throat. Ugly retching noises, ones that reminded her too much from her own when she was attacked by the other bandits, erupted from the man as he collapsed to the ground. Asuka counted him as out for the moment.

She seemed to have taken too long to ensure that the lanky thug was actually _down_ , because there was a sharp tug at her scalp, which made Asuka realized that the second one had pulled her caramel locks with a tight grip. She let a yowl escape her lips as he tugged again, this time harder, forcing Asuka down to one knee to remain somewhat balanced. Her mind raced for some form of taijutsu kata that would help her in this situation, but it came up completely blank. Her elbows wouldn't reach the guy from this distance or position. Hands wouldn't do much better, and she was already down on one knee.

She heard a faint click that sounded somewhat like a pocketknife snapping open, and Asuka's heart jumped when she realized she had less time to do something than originally thought. Kushina, Asuka assumed, was far too preoccupied dealing with the other five all at once to help her, and god forbid if Asuka couldn't deal with an untrained bandit one at a time.

What taijutsu form would help? Spars had never worked her way because Asuka was so concentrated on what kata form to execute next, which always made her too slow and stumble. Although, during those few minutes before, Asuka hadn't thought of what kata to do when she had taken the lanky bandit down. She had just moved.

Something pieced together in her mind briefly as Asuka's body was already in action. A good clump of hairs were ripped out of her scalp as Asuka leaned forward onto her hands, kicking her only free leg up high due to her dance training. Her foot had luckily come in contact with some form of limb –she had been aiming for the man's crotch, a dirty but quick attack– and ended up hitting what she had assumed be an inner thigh if the grunt her second assailant let loose was any sign. Asuka was moving immediately after the grip on her hair was dropped, rolling up to a crouched plié position in preparation for the next move.

The kick Asuka gave hadn't seemed to have done much more than startle the man, and he was already up by the time Asuka gave her next high kick. She was aiming for his throat, and would have hit if the bulkier man hadn't moved at the very last second. Asuka grit her teeth, ducked under the fist thrust towards her, used her back foot to push her into a turn and kicked her leg up in a tilt using the momentum from the turn to strike the side of his neck with her heel.

Like the first kick, it hadn't done much damage, but it had given Asuka enough time to continue the momentum into another rotation. She stepped down onto the foot she had previously kicked up with, and used her opposite knee to ram it into his crotch.

Just like that, he was down for the count.

Asuka stared at the two men she had brought down with wide eyes as she heaved for air. "Holy shit…" she breathed in slight disbelief. She glanced up at Kushina, who had already tossed the men she had taken out off of the path, unsure of what to do next. Asuka managed to catch a brief glance of ink kanji on the thugs' foreheads, all of them unconscious.

Kushina had quickly slapped the foreheads of each man on either side of Asuka, and the younger of the two watched in slight awe as the same ink kanji appeared on their foreheads. The two men slumped into unconsciousness, and Kushina had hauled them off of the road as well.

"I wouldn't worry about them too much," Kushina said, barely gracing their crumpled forms a glance, before urging Asuka to continue their trek back to Konoha. "They're just a bunch of low-level thugs."

That night, Asuka spent her watch mulling over what had happened. It was startling, how quickly Asuka had moved to attack the thugs after their presence was made known. She had barely paused to consider that she was _fighting_ another person, and she had settled into that template with stunning speed. She felt mildly disturbed, scared even, on this world's molding of the mindset. This world involved more fighting, more death, and more _war_ than her old one. There wasn't even a gun to use as a tool –it was all physical– and the conditioning was done very nearly right from birth. Hidden Villages encouraged their civilian and clan kids to become ninja. To train to become killers. It was like propaganda on a sugar high.

It then became apparent to Asuka just what she had done to herself. She had agreed to be formed like a little clay statue by Konoha. That fight with the thugs was just the beginning. Things would become harder, more dangerous, and all for the sake of feeling stronger Asuka had thrust herself into this world.

And it _had_ felt good to fight the thugs, in a large, greedy part of her mind. She felt powerful; she almost yearned for another opponent when she had struck that second man down. The urge to fight was overwhelming; the adrenaline running through her veins that said that Asuka could become a ninja if she so desired, that she had the ability to fight stronger opponents and win.

It was a terrifying, liberating feeling.

Once morning came, Asuka had woken Kushina up carefully, and they had once again taken off for their trek back to Konoha.

There was a message at the gates for Kushina and Asuka when they had arrived and been properly checked. The chūnin had looked amused while telling Kushina that the Hokage would like to see the two of them once more as Asuka tried to catch her breath in the background. He didn't seem too bothered by the death glare she was sending towards him. If anything, it made his grin wider.

The world was full of assholes.

Kushina was quick to lead Asuka to the Hokage's office after that, unfortunately there was no time for a quick stop to even drop supplies and luggage off at the apartment, so Asuka was forced to continue to carry the weight of her belongings on her back through Konoha. To make things worse, they were forced to wait until the Hokage was free, because it seemed that the old man was busy giving a mission brief or something along that line. Asuka had taken to humming a song from her past life instead of grumbling under her breath.

It had taken a good ten minutes before the office was freed, and the team that had stepped out from the office immediately struck a sour chord in Asuka's soul. Because there he was, the new bane of her life, Hatake Kakashi in all his arrogant child-genius glory. Minato's presence hadn't even softened the blow, as much as Asuka had enjoyed the sunny-haired teen's intelligent company, of the pure revulsion and inferiority that had come with Kakashi's appearance.

Their eyes met with mutual distaste. At least he had acknowledged her existence this time.

And then he opened his mouth, and said with the most monotonous, bored, could-care-less tone, "Oh. You're back. I was hoping you would stay there."

Upon reflection, his statement wasn't unlike the one Hanako-baa had given her nearly a week ago, but somehow Kakashi had managed to twist it in a way to anger her.

Reminding herself to take a deep breath, Asuka gave him a faux sunny smile. "Great to see you too, Kaka- _pyon_!"

Both Kushina and Minato's chakra twitched at the cutesy honorific Asuka had used, whereas Kakashi looked to be scowling for the most part with his eyes narrowed into a glare. He scoffed, his shoulders and chakra tense, before walking past her without so much as another glance. He made sure to bump her shoulder with his own, and whether the amount of strength he used was intended or not, Asuka could never be sure. She glared at his retreating figure as she fought to steady herself from the shove.

Asuka: 1, Kakashi: 1

Minato passed with an apologetic look clouded with confusion.

"I hate him," Asuka seethed. "That immature, conceited little brat."

She darted towards the open door of the Hokage's office, Kushina not far behind with a chiding tone.

"Asuka-chan, maybe you should wait before judging him so soon. Sometimes people act mean as a defense mechanism."

 _What_ could have possibly happened to a six-year-old little asshole to give him such a defense mechanism? Asuka fought a disbelieving snort, merely because of Kushina's sincere pitch.

"Yeah, well he can tell me all about it when he stops being a jackass."

A swift smack was delivered to the back of her head.

"Stop that, Asuka-chan," Kushina clipped, her face stern. It was rare to see serious Kushina, much less a serious Kushina that was scolding Asuka for her actions. The younger of the two fought a wince at the stern, unrelenting voice, simply opting to cross her arms over her chest defensively with a scoff.

Who was Kushina to scold her like a child, anyways?

The Hokage cleared his throat, and they got down to business.

For the most part, Asuka's request was approved. There would be a test for her to move up an age level in one-week time, where Kushina would put her through a massive boot camp training regime to not only pass the test, but for Asuka to start catch-up with the extra curriculum. One year was the objective for Asuka to take the genin exam, with both academy classes and private training. Every couple months, Asuka would be required to assess her skills through a spar with Kakashi –who had grudgingly agreed with those guidelines earlier– as well as endure kekkei genkai training from a small mix of different ninja available.

It would be a busy year; perhaps the most ambitious Asuka had ever been in her entire current and past life. The urge to become powerful was strong –to find that same adrenaline rush she had experienced when fighting those thugs. Not once did the previous severe-asthmatic think she would have become an adrenaline junkie, but it seemed that she was going down that path. And she definitely wasn't about to lose to the pint-sized jackass himself. Perhaps she wasn't on his level of 'genius', but she would prove herself to be above average just the same.

If –when, in Asuka's mind– she were to pass the genin exam the first time around, Kushina would be assigned as her full-time jounin sensei, and determine the missions the pair would be sent out on. Considering wartime was brewing, the missions were warned to be a bit heavier than what the typical missions would be.

By the time Asuka was ready to go to sleep that night, her mind was heavy with what her decisions could possibly bring her. She could very well die much earlier than she had in her previous life, but a part of her almost couldn't bring herself to care. It was a craving –a bad one– to have strength. Greed was strong when she yearned to be unbeatable. Disgust was strong when she looked back at who she used to be compared to who she was now; to the person she could become.

That bronze kunai was shining in the moonlight again, sitting on that bedside table. Instead of fear and worthlessness when she studied it with her fingers, Asuka felt desire to overcome what the kunai had symbolized what the old her was.

Asuka would no longer be that weak, sickly little girl. As far as she was concerned, the person she was before was dead.

…

 **Things are finally starting to take action. I will probably move the year between now and Asuka's genin test fairly quickly, just to get things up and running.**

 **I actually had a pretty hard time writing Asuka and Kakashi's interactions (really, it went so nicely in my mind, but in the doc things seemed to screw itself over), and I'm still not entirely proud of it, nor am I sure that our little shit is completely in character. I hinted that his father's death happened fairly recently near the end of the chapter, if anyone caught that, so he probably won't be as much of a shit as he will be a bit later on.**

 **I don't know, feedback and suggestions would be nice on that part.**

 **Also, for anyone wondering: _pyon_ is a cutesy, childish honorific that Asuka uses simply to torture Kakashi with.**

 **SomeRandomPerson –you crack me up. Thank you, your reviews are exactly what I need as motivation and I love to hear of what you think :D I plan to bring Rin and Obito in fairly soon (within the next chapter or so) as well as Gai, and I'm looking forward to that!**

 **Thanks to all of you who have reviewed/favorite/followed. It means so much to me, and I love to hear feedback and suggestions to help make my writing better.**

 **See you all next time ~**


	8. Half Way

Her arms were grumpily crossed over her chest as she slumped in the uncomfortable chair outside one of the chūnin teachers' office, a young boy with glaringly bright orange goggled around his raven black locks of hair on her left, and a young girl with short brown hair with matching eyes and strange purple stripes on her cheeks on Asuka's left. Both of the kids on either side of Asuka seemed familiar enough to make her assume that they were also in the six-year-old academy class.

Across from them was a pair of older students –nine, by the looks of it, which coincidentally was the academy's graduating age, which was bafflingly _young_ – glaring at the three of them from their equally slumped positions. One of them was quite stocky, and looked surprisingly similar to the black haired and dark eyed boy sitting next to her, but not so obviously identical. Perhaps distant relatives. The other boy was a little slimmer, although he was fast and had managed to catch Asuka in surprise, with wild black hair hanging past his chin. He, too, looked to resemble the goggle boy next to her. Asuka was proud to see them both looking quite rugged and scuffed up, perhaps with an accidental burn mark here or there, but _whatever_.

That wasn't to say that Asuka and the boy next to her weren't equally as scuffed up if not worse. While she had managed to land a good high kick and a chomp with her teeth onto the stocky one, his buddy had given her cheek a nice forming bruise with red scratches down the side. The goggles boy had an equal amount of luck, with his torn jacket and blood-dripping nose that was being soaked up by a piece of fabric that was unsalvageable from his torn jacket. Asuka thought that she might have accidently burnt him a little too –thankfully no explosions, just a sharp rise in temperature with raw chakra– but he was hiding it well.

It was all worth it, in Asuka's opinion, because the purple striped cheek girl on her right had come out with scraped palms at the worst.

The chūnin teacher, whom Asuka was eternally grateful wasn't her current chūnin academy teacher in fear for being _eaten_ alive and spit out like tar, had come out of the office seconds later to call the two across from her in. They were sharing stories separately, it seemed. Asuka was already mentally planning to manipulate the sympathy in her direction, which was surely what the two bastards were going to do. She just hoped that Kushina wouldn't blow things out of proportion when she received the note sent home.

The door barely shut after them before the brunette girl spoke up. "Um…thanks stepping in. Both of you. You didn't have to stick up for me." She was fidgeting with her blouse as she spoke, her head ducked down uncertainly.

"That's not true, Rin-chan!" the boy exclaimed, shooting up from his seat energetically. He was acting as if his nose wasn't bleeding down his neck onto his shirt, which Asuka admitted was pretty admirable, because her cheek was hurting like a little bitch. "I will always protect you from jerks like them!"

The girl, Rin, lifted her head to smile at the boy. With a quick glance, that small smile had stunned the goggle-head stupid. "Thank you, Obito-kun. I really wish I could heal the injuries you got for me, but nee-chan hasn't taught me the Mystical Palm yet." Rin glanced to Asuka, who was still slumped in her chair, but listening to the conversation attentively. "You really didn't have to, but you still helped. Thank you."

Asuka hummed in reply with an abashed scowl, because in reality, she _hadn't_ known why she had stepped in. "They were assholes. I can't stand people like that."

"Still," Rin insisted with a smile. "I'm grateful."

Instead of replying, Asuka sunk lower in her seat, turning her head down to her lap, embarrassed.

"Yeah!" Obito added in, most likely with a wide grin. "If you hadn't joined in, we woulda been in _real_ trouble."

"Aren't we already in trouble?" Asuka grimly noted. What usually happened when dealing with fights at a ninja school?

"Well yeah, but that's not what I mean!" Obito insisted. That grin never left his face when Asuka lifted her head to give him a dubious look. His nose must have been hurting by now. "Those guys would have completely pummeled us before a teacher caught them!"

He gave a laugh, wincing when it must have stung his injury. Asuka perked up slightly when it reminded her of the ointment she had stored in one of the pouches on her hips. Both Obito and Rin had watched curiously as she dug through the pouch and brought out a small container filled with a light green paste. Asuka caught their inquisitive looks, and decided to explain while unscrewing the lid.

"It's mainly for scratches and bruises," Asuka said as she dipped her finger into the mixture slightly to rub onto her cheek. She infused a small amount of the raw chakra that was prickling around the injury into the balm as she did so to increase the soothing sensation. She automatically dipped her finger into the ointment again and turned to gently rub it onto Obito's nose. For a flash of a moment, she was back giving minor medical attention to her brother in his apartment kitchen. Obito recoiled slightly at the intimate action, but Asuka was too far into her memories to notice. She pulled a light amount of raw chakra into the balm as she lightly dabbed it onto the swelling lump. "But it can work for other small injuries as well. It eases the pain and has a small antibacterial component to it as well. Not super convenient like medical ninjutsu, but it works all the same."

"Wow," Obito cooed, crossing his eyes to look at his nose. "That's so cool! Where'd you buy it, I need some!"

Asuka's hand had retracted quickly when she realized what she was doing for this random kid, and instead of immediately answering Obito; she turned towards Rin and raised the container slightly as if to silently ask if the brunette girl needed some as well. She shook her head, so Asuka screwed the cap back on.

"I made it out of common plants and roots," Asuka told him, carelessly dumping the closed container into his hands. "You can have it, I can always make more later."

"Thanks a lot, uh…" Obito's grin turned sheepish as he scratched his cheek. "I don't know your name. I'm Uchiha Obito, and that's Nohara Rin-chan!"

"Hitsugaya Asuka," she introduced herself after nodding to both Obito and Rin. "It was nice fighting douchebags with you."

"Asuka-san, you shouldn't say things like that!" Rin scolded immediately.

"Why not? They're douchebags for picking on you like that," Asuka retorted, crossing her arms firmly across her chest. "I call 'em as I see 'em. And I swear I'm going to beat someone's ass if this happens again."

Rin flushed slightly at Asuka's sudden declaration, which had surprised Asuka herself, but Obito had jumped right in. "That's right! Don't worry Rin-chan, Asuka-chan and I will make sure assholes like them get what's coming to them!"

"That's right," Asuka agreed, slapping Obito's held out hand in a high-five. It was weird how getting into a fight with a bunch of older students could form such quick comradeships, but Asuka wasn't going to let herself sit on it too long. In fact, the way the conversation was so easily turning out was almost amusing in a way.

Seeing that she couldn't do much to stop the duo's new agreement, Rin simply sighed and shook her head. "The two of you…I guess I'll be your side of reason then."

"That works," Asuka said, Obito nodding fervently in agreement. Speaking with the two of them now was almost nostalgic in the way she and her friends were like before. "We can be like the Three Musketeers."

Obito tilted his head to the side curiously. "What's the Three Musketee –"

The boy cut himself off when the office door opened, and the two smirking bastards walked out. They hadn't said anything while passing the trio of younger students, but their faces were enough. It looked like Asuka was going to have to step up her manipulation strategy by quite a bit to get off relatively scot-free.

"You three," the chūnin teacher ordered piercingly, his face stern and unrelenting. "Step in now."

Asuka shared a glance with her two new comrades before stepping into the office.

…

 **Half Way  
**

…

The chūnin teacher wasn't much to look at –didn't look any stronger than Hige or Taiki– but he held a stern look on his face. Asuka rolled her eyes. Great, a stick in the mud.

"So," his voice was sharp as his squinty eyes glanced down their line of three. "Would one of you care to tell me what happened?"

Rin stepped up to the plate, only slightly quivering under his harsh gaze. It was an admirable trait, Asuka noticed as she watched the young brunette's eyes sharpen determinedly, especially for a child who couldn't be any older than seven. "You see, sensei, I was walking to meet Obito-kun for lunch, but I wasn't really paying attention. I accidently bumped into Uchiha-san and Uchiha-san and fell over. Things sort of got out of hand from there. I was scared, and Obito-kun came to try and get them to stop. When they didn't, Asuka-san stepped in to help Obito. I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to turn out this way."

Asuka had to hand it to Rin, the girl probably knew how to work the stern teacher better than she could. It must have been due to Rin's genuine personality –the girl was honestly the sweetest child Asuka had come across since being reborn into this world, which was probably one of the reasons she, Asuka, and Obito had clicked together so quickly out in the hall– because Asuka could physically feel the teacher's chakra softening just the slightest. He turned to the next person down the line, Obito, and the teacher's chakra sharpened again.

"And you? What was your reasoning for picking a fight with them?"

Obito stiffened slightly, his chakra giving a slight jump, before the young boy had forced himself to straighten out. These children seemed to become more impressive under pressure, Asuka scrutinized.

"I was waiting for Rin-chan so we could share lunch," Obito started out. "But when she didn't come after a while I started getting worried, so I went to go look for her. I saw Rin-chan on the ground and my cousins picking on her, so I went up to them to get them to leave her alone. Then they started picking a fight with me…"

"And you encouraged the fight?" the teacher cut in with a disapproving raised eyebrow. Something in his tone didn't resonate with Asuka, and it had occurred to her that he was pinning the blame onto Obito.

"How was Obito supposed to stop a fight from breaking out if the bastards were encouraging it themselves?" Asuka countered, not particularly caring if she was speaking out of turn. The teacher turned a sharp eye to her, and Asuka returned it with a defiant raise of her chin. "If you expect Obito to be able to walk away from a bullying situation unscathed in the scenario that he leaves the fight, that's naïve and stupid. Obito's cousins were looking for a fight –not the best trait for a training ninja, in my opinion– and didn't particularly care who got caught in the crossfire, as long as their pissing contest made them feel more powerful. Obito is younger, therefore has less power in this situation. Sorry, sensei, but I just don't see your logic."

In the back of her mind, Asuka could register an annoyingly large and familiar chakra slowly minimizing the distance between it and herself. How Kushina had the time to come and confront her about the fight so quickly was beyond her, but the fact that she was agitatedly approaching was solid. Perhaps there was also a spark of mischief looming in that mass of chakra, but it was too far away to tell.

The chūnin looked particularly vehement against the disrespect Asuka was showing him, whereas Obito's chakra spiked with what she assumed was happiness or admiration, or something similar.

"I don't recall asking you to speak –"

"Regardless," Asuka continued to cut him off. His chakra jumped angrily, and she resisted the urge to scoff at this old coot. Rin's energy was waving nervously. Asuka supposed that the story telling _was_ going rather well until she opened her mouth, but the damage had been done. "You're blatantly disregarding Obito's side of the story, because it presumably is the opposite of what the two assholes' sob story before us was. Let me guess, they were trying to help Rin up –I will get back to that later, because for the most part what I've experienced from clan kids is the holier-than-thou attitude– and Obito suddenly approached and started picking a fight, right? There are several holes in that story that goes with the implication of Obito starting the fight. If they were so kind to help Rin up, why wouldn't they stop encouraging Obito to fight? They had the advantage of age, and numbers. That doesn't make sense. So perhaps you should get your fat biased head out of your ass and open your eyes to _all_ of the facts."

Asuka was asking for it, she knew. The chūnin looked downright _furious_ , but she wasn't going to take shit from him. If she could survive a group of bandits, an attack from thugs, and the hellish training she was subjected to for the past two months, she could sure as hell survive this asshole.

"How dare you disrespect –"

The door slammed open. Asuka knew it was coming, so she hadn't jumped like the teacher, Rin, and Obito. The startled three whirled around to face the vibrant redhead known as Uzumaki Kushina.

"Wh –Uzumaki, what are you doing at the academy?" the chūnin teacher sputtered, but was ignored in favor of shoving an accusing wrinkled piece of paper into Asuka's waiting face.

" _You_! Asuka-chan do you know what this is?" Kushina waved the piece of paper, but didn't leave Asuka any room to reply. "It's a note telling me that you got into a fight with upperclassmen! What were you thinking? Honestly, do you think this is going to help you become a kunoichi?"

There was a brief pause where Asuka could only blink, because after spending so much time with Kushina, she honestly had no idea where this could go. Rin, Obito, and the teacher were stunned silent. Kushina's chakra sparked once more, and it clicked in Asuka's mind.

Kushina's long hair smacked into Asuka's face as the teen whipped around to turn her menacing glare onto the teacher. "Oh, you don't have to worry about a thing. I'll make sure Asuka-chan is disciplined, so she doesn't lash out like this again," Kushina shot a scathing look towards Rin and Obito, snatching both of their wrists in one hand. "And I'll make sure both of your families know just what happened today."

And with that, the vibrant teen turned on the spot and marched right out of the office, barking, "Asuka-chan, get over here!"

Asuka couldn't look at the teacher as she quickly followed after Kushina and her two new comrades, because the smirk was starting to grow on her face. She managed to safely hold it until they were a safe hearing distance away from any eavesdroppers before she snorted.

"Okay, I'll admit that was pretty good," Asuka confessed between chortles. Rin and Obito's confused expressions were hardly making it easier to straighten her face. "Did you see his face?"

Kushina grinned, letting out a quick laugh while dropping her grip on Obito and Rin's wrists. Her hands fell to her hips. "That's nothing compared to _my_ academy days! You should've seen the other kids' faces back then! They called methe Red Hot-Blooded Habanero. You still have a ways before getting a reputation like mine, brat!"

"What was that, like fifty years ago, you old hag?"

"Hah. Cute, Asuka-chan." Kushina turned her attention down to the bewildered children next to her. "Hi! You must be Asuka-chan's friends! I'm Uzumaki Kushina!"

"This is Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin. Kushina's kind of like my uh…private sensei slash warden," Asuka told them as a sort-of explanation. "She's kind of an ass, but you get used to it."

Kushina snorted, lightly pounding her knuckles on top of Asuka's head. "Right, _I'm_ the ass. Who just got you out of trouble?"

"I don't know, I think we were heading towards it ourselves," Asuka replied allusively, her lips curling into a light sneer as she tried to smooth out her tousled caramel locks.

" _Right_ ," Rin pitched in with a frown. "Asuka-san, you were digging us deeper."

"Also a possibility," Asuka nodded in acknowledgment, her lips quirking over her semi-serious face teasingly. "But you have to admit his face was getting pretty red."

Obito laughed outright, whereas Rin sighed with the hint of a smile on her face. Kushina grinned widely with another sort of emotion reflecting in her eyes –pride?– placing her hands on her hips whilst doing so.

"Alright kiddies and my lovely student," she bellowed enthusiastically, managing to wrangle all three of them into a sort of half-hug. "Since I reckon you all missed lunch because of this, I propose we all go to Ichiraku –my treat!"

"We still have classes, Kushina-san," Rin protested, but couldn't help stumbling along as Kushina dragged the three of them towards the exit.

"You might as well give up now, Rin," Asuka commented dryly as she managed to duck under the redhead's arm to walk without the unneeded assistance. "Kushina's an unstoppable force once she puts her mind to it."

Rin made a displeased sound in resignation. Obito cheered.

"Besides," Asuka added. "If we have ramen now, that means we won't have it for dinner."

~…~

A couple weeks after the fight during academy lunch break, Asuka was waiting at her usual training grounds with a perturbed scowl on her face. She had already performed her warm up exercises, and was now finishing up the small break before she would face of with his-holy-jackass himself.

Kakashi himself looked as bored as usual. Perhaps with a bit of irritation layered in his sparking chakra.

Asuka wasn't dumb. She knew that any kid that had graduated the academy at five and made chūnin one year later –which was perhaps a couple months before they had met– probably had the ability to pin her down in less than ten seconds flat.

And he did, Asuka had realized after registering the dirt and grass in her face, in a little less than five.

She couldn't even fathom the aggravation that came quickly after that realization.

"Kakashi," Minato's voice rang out, and the boy's grip on her shoulder pressed a little harder into the ground. "This is to test how Hitsugaya-kun's abilities have grown. To do that, we need the spar to last a little longer."

The boy had released her with a scoff. "I don't see why I have to waste my time with her."

The rest of the day hadn't gone much better.

~…~

 _Thud._ Asuka grit her teeth as she landed on her ass once again. Kushina was going insanely easy, a thoughtful frown on her face as the redhead performed the taijutsu stances exaggeratingly slow to give Asuka proper reaction time. Sparring hadn't improved at all –no matter how quickly she was plowing through the six-year-old school curriculum, her fighting ability was still painful; even _Obito_ managed to do better than she did and he was a klutz– and Kushina couldn't seem to think of a solution except to continue to brawl to ingrain the movements. Each time, though, Asuka was tossed to the ground with defeat. No matter how many times she had practice the taijutsu forms, they still felt unnatural and rough.

"One more time, Asuka-chan. It's getting smoother."

 _Thud._

Lies.

"Keep trying, Asuka-chan."

 _Thud._

"Once more –"

"No!" Asuka shouted, finally fed up. She shot up from the ground angrily. "No matter how many times I try to fucking spar I never get any better!" she roared. "It's been a month since the assessment and I still haven't improved any! How the fuck is landing on my ass going to help me pass the goddamn test?!"

Kushina opened her mouth to reply, but Asuka wasn't finished.

"And how the hell is any of this supposed to feel natural if all I can do is think about what to do next while I'm fighting? None of these katas _work_ ," she seethed, relishing in the pain her nails gave when she dug them into her palms. "None of it is smooth! I can't trust my body to operate on its own!"

"What about when we were attacked by those thugs on the way back to Konoha," Kushina interjected, eyeing Asuka's furious form with a critical eye. "You seemed to trust in your actions then, they were smooth."

"That's because I trained myself specifically that way!" Asuka shouted with frustration. "It's just the way my body moves naturally! It wasn't taijutsu!"

Kushina's eyes narrowed with thought. "Elaborate on that; what did you train yourself to do?"

"I –" Asuka paused once she recognized what Kushina was asking, the anger she had previously felt draining somewhat. She puffed her cheeks out with a frown, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "It's hard to explain. It would be easier to…show you, I guess."

The redhead nodded, taking a step back. "Okay."

It would be the first time dancing in front of another person in _years_. Asuka was confident in her dancing abilities, sure, but performing in front of people was a whole other thing. Alone, there wasn't anyone to judge, but in front of Kushina, there was no telling what the redhead would think or say in this situation. Dancing, more importantly the variations from her old world, was not common in the ninja world.

"I –just…okay."

If they could figure out a way to translate dance into her taijutsu forms, Asuka would no longer have issues. She could get over her self-conscious feelings if it meant doing some beating rather than getting beaten.

She sucked in a breath, slipped her shoes off, and walked out into the field. And then she danced.

Time was always lost when Asuka danced. It just seemed like an eternal thing. No thoughts, no frustrations, no worries. Just peace. Just the music playing in her mind. Just her smooth and graceful body movements. She did backbends, leg holds, numerous turns. Asuka rolled, tumbled; she did complicated tricks and went right into another set of jumps whether it be to the ground or into a split in the air. Her body moved with ease to the silent beat.

Asuka hadn't realized she stopped until Kushina started clapping. Her eyes snapped open, startled at the sound.

She looked over at Kushina with uncertainty, easing only slightly at the glimmering of the redhead's expression. "Well..? Do you think we can make it work?"

"Please, Asuka-chan," Kushina said, her hands clasped together with an excited grin. "We can do much better."

It wasn't perfect, but it was still _heaps_ better than what Asuka had been working with before. They worked as much as they could, but there were still many things that Asuka had to learn in order to pass the genin test. Her kunai throwing was above par at best, and Kushina had just started her on shuriken throwing a couple weeks after her beat down featuring Kakashi. She had started to learn jutsu, but it was almost as awful as an experience as taijutsu because her own chakra reserves were laughablysmall –Asuka had very nearly passed out attempting to perform a basic transformation technique on her first try– so the only thing that they could really do for her reserves was to continue to practice chakra control in the form of learning to walk up trees step by step.

Asuka was steadily increasing age levels in the academy. By the halfway mark in her year of vigorous training, Asuka had started the seven-year-old curriculum. Textbook information was fairly easy to take in, which made Asuka wryly think that university had actually done something somewhat useful in her life, therefore allowing her to at least excel academically. Catching up regarding the physical aspects were a little more challenging, but Kushina and Asuka were still working diligently.

As far as natural energy manipulation went, it was progressing slowly. For more times than Asuka could count, she ended up visiting Taiki in his own apartment –after managing to pester the address out of him during one of her many visits to the hospital to fix up the burns– for extra healing when Asuka wasn't as eager to go to the hospital. Taiki was already accustomed to healing the raw chakra burns from way back when he had fixed her up relatively well after the bandit attack in her old village, and he gave her an exasperated sigh each time the caramel-haired girl showed up at his apartment doorstep, but let her in regardless.

Hige had made a surprise appearance too, along with Futaaimaru; when Kushina had been called on to take part in a mission for a couple days. Asuka's private-sensei had arranged for the Inuzuka pair to train Asuka in her stead on things that they hadn't normally practiced during their after-academy sessions. One of them, much to Hige's amusement and Asuka's chagrin, was speed. It involved running to avoid the tackle-happy furry beast that people liked to call a dog, and the ability to swiftly dodge when the human side of the pair decided to get in on the action. Needless to say, Asuka ended up with bruises on both her body and ego.

She hadn't seen much of Obito or Rin, other than at lunch breaks during academy hours. Even then, though, Asuka was neck-deep in whatever literature that would give her a boost in class and on the field that she could get her hands on. Their comradeship was dwindling, at best, but Obito had (loudly) declared that he was cheering Asuka on once the pair found out what she was working towards, and Rin had given her an encouraging smile as well as going as far to offer some of her older sister's discarded books.

Perhaps Asuka would regret not spending as much time with the two as she should have, because they were a nice break from the exuberance that Kushina's personality entailed and the intense regime they were working through. She hardly knew either of the children, other than their first name and vague likes and dislikes. The Three Musketeers thing had promise when it was brought up those many months ago, but without any proper building of their acquaintance bond, they were simply left with occasionally sitting in each other's company.

Time had quite literally flown by in a mass of training and studying, so fast that Asuka was almost surprised when her second spar against Kakashi at the six-month mark was the next day. It was both exhilarating and nauseating to realize, because she was genuinely excited to test just what her training had done for her abilities. Of course, Kakashi would continue to be the biggest douche Asuka had ever had the grace of meeting, but perhaps she could manage to pull one over on him this round.

Asuka was greeted with a scoff and an eye roll –more than she had expected, but still managed to fuel her dislike for him further– as she went through her warm-ups. The routine was modified from the generic warm-up, directed more towards working the muscles groups that she and Kushina had taken to using during taijutsu practice. Kakashi had eyed her with a curiously blank face as she did so, but his chakra spoke of interest as she performed things that were different from the previous assessment.

Finally it came to the time where she and Kakashi would face off in a spar. Kushina and Minato were spectating at a distance as Asuka sunk into a crouch as a starting position after they had made the according seals before starting the fight.

"Begin!"

Kakashi was quick to act much like the last time, eager to get the spars over with. This time, Asuka was actually somewhat prepared, and dove through his legs as he grabbed for her to pin her to the ground. She swung her leg out to knock Kakashi off of his feet during his incredibly brief moment of surprise, only for him to skip over her foot at the last second. Asuka quickly rolled up using the momentum from her leg swing as Kakashi turned to face her one more.

His eyes were narrowed as he blocked a swift punch towards his abdomen, using his other hand to block the oncoming leg directed towards his side. Asuka kept going with the motion, putting her weight into the leg and springing up from the ground to untwist herself as her free leg swung around towards Kakashi's head. The boy ducked with a grunt just as her foot nicked his ear. Asuka's eyes widened at the lack of connection, and stumbled to catch herself when she landed on his other side.

She ground out a small, "fuck" when Kakashi landed a hard punch on her shoulder, pitching her body to the side to avoid another one of his punches. He seemed to be taking her seriously this time, and although Asuka had composed herself well in the beginning, it quickly crumbled as Kakashi took on the offensive after sizing up the extent of her skill.

Like last time, Asuka ended up with her face shoved into the dirt.

Six months, it seemed, was not enough.

…

 **And that's a wrap of chapter eight. Not too much happened, I'm just trying to blast through the one year, but still trying to show Asuka's slow improvement. We met Obito and Rin, though, but unfortunately they won't be appearing for a while again.**

 **The last six months will be taken care of in the next chapter along with the inevitable meeting with Gai. Fun fact, apparently he didn't declare Kakashi his eternal rival until being matched against him and losing during the Chūnin Exams.**

 **Anyways, a super big thanks to those of you who reviewed/favorited/followed! I absolutely love hearing what you guys think, and I hope you guys continue to send me your thoughts!**


	9. Academy Days: Finish Line

"Well, Asuka-chan," Kushina hummed thoughtfully while the girl in question was cooling down from their training session. "You've certainly improved in nearly everything."

Two weeks had passed since the halfway mark assessment against Kakashi. It was true that taijutsu had gone phenomenally better than the mess before, and it definitely _felt_ a lot better although improvement was always an option. Asuka noted that she definitely needed to increase her speed –something she had begrudgingly requested that Hige and his beast would continue to work on her with; she had lost a lot of pride with that one, but decided to get over it for the sake of improving– and to continue to spar with Kushina to make her move set fluid.

Kushina continued. "I think starting tomorrow we can begin incorporating weapons into the spars. I would say ninjutsu as well, but your small chakra coils seem to only be primarily able to focus on enhancing your physical capabilities. If we continue to refine your chakra control until you take the genin test, though, you should be well off enough to perform both the clone and transformation techniques in one go, other than that I'd say you'd probably be able to get by with one other less restraining jutsu in a battle until your reserves grow a bit more."

It was slightly irksome, that Asuka's chakra reserves were the size of an above average civilian. With it, she would never be able to use any helpful jutsu in battle, at the most just using it to enhance her muscle strength, speed, and the likes. Even with expending her chakra reserves enormously at the end of each training session to increase the capacity for the life energy, it didn't seem to be growing too much. As aggravating as it was, Asuka was relieved to hear that it wouldn't necessarily pull her down on her journey to become stronger –and she was almost resigned that it would make her better, as it didn't quite feel like cheating– nor would it stunt her fūinjutsu lessons later on, as the art itself wasn't as chakra intensive as other jutsu. The only thing that was aggravating, really, was the fact that Asuka's kekkei genkai training had hardly improved.

There was only so much one could do in the terms of boosting photosynthesis in premature plants and explosions. Even Minato seemed particularly stumped at how to improve and template the ability into one that would be harmful in battle, but benefit the user. They had managed to determine that no, it wasn't at all like the supposed Sage Mode Minato could enter, as it didn't actually absorb into her body and merge with her chakra except when injured to boost the healing process. If anything, Minato had observed, it was more like a giant release of energy by using raw chakra from nature. That, however, still hadn't helped Asuka into developing it so she wouldn't get damaged in the aftermath of an explosion.

Asuka's face screwed up with displeasure at the thought of her lack of successful training on her ability. Kushina caught it, and immediately understood what the expression was for.

"As for your ability," Kushina added with a contemplative frown. "I've requested that Taiki join us for that portion of training from now until we can get a hang of it whenever he's available." Taiki surely wouldn't be pleased with that. "And as for developing it, well, I've started thinking about a couple theories that we could try out."

Asuka eyed Kushina attentively, moving to take a seat across from the redhead with interest. Theories were always welcome.

Seeing that she had Asuka's undivided attention, Kushina continued. "You mentioned before that keeping the natural energy moving refrains it from detonating, right? What if you were to…encase the _still_ energy by the _moving_ to act as both a guide and shield?"

There was a pause as Asuka considered it. The idea was definitely worth a try; by controlling the moving energy around the still –which would perhaps need a certain amount of multitasking to accomplish properly– or to specify a certain area of raw chakra to erupt and letting the natural flow of the surrounding chakra to absorb the after math. The latter option had a less chance of working, though, because that was essentially what Asuka had been doing up to current training; so if she were to use moving chakra to act as a guide for the explosive chakra, it would have to be moving quite rabidly opposed to the lazy natural flow. It was a possibility that could just lead to success regarding her ability.

Asuka found herself nodding, raising her jade eyes to meet with Kushina's. "It could work. We should try it."

Kushina's face molded into a wide grin. "Fantastic, 'ttebane! We'll start tomorrow with Taiki, and then you'll master it in no time!"

"Well, first we'll have to see if it actually works," Asuka countered blandly. "Although I suppose it's a better start than everything else we tried."

Those had obviously all ended in disaster.

"What do you think we should name it?"

Asuka shot her teacher a raised eyebrow. "What, the explosions? I think that's kind of self-explanatory."

"No," Kushina shot the caramel-haired girl a mildly irritated look, swiftly reaching around Asuka to slap the back of her head before the younger girl could blink. "That's definitely not how things work, you brat. It's a special technique, so it needs a name."

"Yeah," Asuka replied with a deadpan face. "If we actually know what it does other than super-sensory abilities, sun imitation, and blowing things up. If you think about it, those are pretty much names in themselves."

Kushina smacked the back of Asuka's head once more, ignoring the irritated glare. "Speaking of 'super-sensing', we should really start to incorporate them into a fighting scenario. It might just give you the upper hand in a battle."

"Yay," Asuka cheered unenthusiastically. Her senses flared slightly, managing to catch the inch of movement as Kushina lunged to dig her knuckles into the top of Asuka's head for a noogie a bit too late. Asuka fell back with a yelp as the redhead's weight fell on top of her as the tormenting continued.

"What was that, Asuka-chan?" the redhead grated with a laugh as Asuka wriggled frantically to escape her grip. "I don't think I heard you loud enough!"

"Kushina, no!"

Her knuckles ground into Asuka's head harder.

"Come one, I know you're secretly enthusiastic, Asuka-chan! Say it with me!"

"You asshole, let me go!"

"I can't hear that enthusiasm, 'ttebane!"

"Kushina, stop!"

"Not until I hear you cheer with me!"

"Kushina!"

…

 **Finish Line**

…

The day off from academy classes once a week usually meant that afternoon training with Kushina would be moved to the morning. It was a nice change, and it allowed both Asuka and Kushina to break off and complete separate tasks and errands that they were planning to do during the week. For Kushina, it usually meant spending time with Minato if he was around, or taking up a quick mission to make up for time lost during the week. This particular day off, the redhead seemed to be in luck because Minato was actually available.

Asuka herself preferred to work through the holy bible of herbal concoctions that Hanako-baa had gifted her. She hadn't had as much time to go through it and create the various brews as much as she would have liked, as she really only had the one day to dedicate it to. Still, she made up for it by diligently gathering the herbs after the morning training session from an assortment of areas in Konoha's walls and spending the rest of the day going through Hanako-baa's last teachings to duplicate the lethal mixtures. Kushina had rented out one of the rooms in her apartment block that held no windows for Asuka to safely work with the herbs without disturbing anyone else –after a bit of badgering, of course.

Which was why Asuka was out collecting herbs scattered through a particular training ground. It wasn't the one she and Kushina frequented, but she had spotted the patches of flowers once or twice when theirs was already occupied and were forced to find another one, and she had mentally noted that it would be a good place for gathering.

Her fingers were working swiftly in a routine under the rubber gloves reaching up to her elbows, cutting, plucking, picking, and stowing them into the various jars inside the basket that lay on a sealing scroll that Kushina had taught her to use a few months back. She hummed absentmindedly to a song from her past life as she worked, pausing the odd time to go through her mental checklist of herbs that needed replenishing. Asuka was so into her work, that she hadn't noticed the familiar sparking chakra approach.

"What are you doing?"

His tone wasn't as curious as it was condescending.

Asuka resisted the urge to roll her eyes, instead choosing to continue in gathering the herbs without turning to look at him.

"Oi, I'm talking to you."

"Oh, sorry Kaka- _pyon_. I didn't hear you," Asuka replied tonelessly. His chakra spiked with irritation, as he knew that she had noticed him, and probably because of the childish nickname that had become a bit of a habit to call him. "I'm surprised; the next assessment isn't for a couple weeks, so what are you doing talking to someone as unworthy for your time as I am."

Kakashi scoffed. "I _wouldn't_ bother wasting my time with you, but I saw you doing something weirder than usual when I was passing by. Have you finally given up and decided to change careers? A florist would suit someone like you better."

Asuka fought the frown off of her face to try and show that his comment hadn't irritated her. If only he knew.

With a swift motion, Asuka snapped her rubber gloves off of her hands and placed them on a separate spot from the basket on her sealing scroll. She infused a small amount of chakra into both, and watched as they flashed briefly before being replaced with simple black kanji. She rolled up the scroll in her hand before standing up to face the silver-haired boy.

"That's cute, Kaka- _pyon_ , but there's actually a point to being 'weirder than usual,'" Asuka replied, a smirk twitching onto her face as his chakra once again spike with irritation.

She may not be able to win in a spar so far, but as far as verbal challenges went, Asuka came out as victor more often than not.

"Yeah? And what's that? Going to fight enemies with some flowers?"

Asuka lightly tapped his shoulder with the scroll as she walked past the young chūnin. "You're not far off," she sang slightly, heading towards the exit of the training grounds closest to Konoha's market. There were a couple things that Asuka could quite find naturally in the area, so she had to purchase a few items. Kushina wouldn't mind it on her tab. "But you're not going to find out anytime soon, Kaka- _pyon_."

Kakashi had caught up to her quickly, and she sent him a mildly curious side-glance as he stared ahead with a bland expression. Usually he would try to stay as far away from her as possible. It was definitely strange that he was accompanying her of his own free will –even if it was just to torment her.

"What are you doing, anyways? I thought you'd be off training or something," Asuka commented wryly.

"My sensei is out with yours, and he suggested I babysit you. I figured your pathetic presence would at least amuse me."

Her eyebrow twitched at his jab.

"You can always go fuck yourself. That's surely more amusing than me."

Kakashi didn't seem impressed, and they mutually ignored each other's presence while walking down Konoha's busy streets. His form seemed to slouch and his expression hardening into a glare as they walked on –albeit at a faster pace than before. Asuka noted the gossiping citizens as they passed, and she spared a glance in his direction.

Her hand twitched, and she smacked him once more on the shoulder with the scroll in her hand.

~…~

The third assessment passed quickly with the usual biting comments and beat downs. Asuka had lasted much longer than any of her last assessments in the spar portion, though, and had actually managed to catch Kakashi surprised once.

 _That_ image would forever be ingrained in Asuka's mind, she thought with glee.

Minato had also commented on her rapid improvement, congratulating both her and Kushina.

By that time, Asuka was ready to move into the nine-year-old class –the final class she would attend before taking the graduation test. They all sneered at her when she entered the classroom –those two Uchiha she had gotten into a fight with so many months ago even more so– but Asuka hardly let it faze her. She had already moved through so many classes that she could hardly be bothered to feel threatened by their unwelcoming glares.

She had taken a seat somewhere in the middle of the class, leaving the aisle seat next to her open. Asuka vaguely wondered who it was that would sit next to her, after being told briefly by her new chūnin teacher (who surprisingly hadn't been the one that had caught the tail end of the fight months ago) that it was a full class of students. Every other seat was filled with a child, so she honestly couldn't help but wonder just who it was that hadn't appeared yet.

And then she saw him. She saw the flash of green. The spandex. The bowl cut.

 _That is a whole separate take on eyebrow game_.

He was in the seat next to her in an instant, while she could only sit in mild shock.

"Hello! I am Maito Gai. Who are you?"

Asuka blinked. "Hitsugaya Asuka," she replied.

And then Gai struck a pose. He shot her a thumbs up with a wink, and a grin that Asuka was almost certain it blinded her a little. "How wonderful! It is very nice to meet you Asuka-san! Have you been in this class long?"

"No. I just moved up into it today," Asuka said, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering. The stun of his first appearance still lingered. She wasn't sure if the students surrounding her pitied her or was amused by the situation. Surely they must have gone through the same treatment?

"Amazing! For someone brimming with youth such as yourself to be so determined to become a ninja of Konoha!" Gai shot his fist in the air, nearly startling Asuka out of her seat. "Alright! You've inspired me, Asuka-san. When we graduate, together we shall make two-hundred laps around Konoha on our hands!"

Asuka thought that _Kushina_ was slightly crazy, but this boy – _this boy_ had to be the most eccentric person in the entirety of the planet. And he just happened to be the one to take the seat next to her. He just happened to declare their newfound friendship to the class, ignoring her attempt at rejecting it. He just happened to completely blow her mind when they reached the taijutsu portion of class. Maito Gai, with all things considered, was an anomaly.

From that point onward, Asuka just seemed to see Gai _everywhere_. Everywhere she turned, he was running through the streets of Konoha doing some sort of vigorous exercise for an obscene amount of reps. For the most part he had just charged past her, but occasionally, like the situation Asuka currently found herself in, he would notice her and talk –if one could call what came from Gai's mouth 'talking'.

Asuka was sitting at a table with an empty stick of dango twirling in between her fingers as she idly sifted through the new text, courtesy of Rin's older sister. A lot of the material was calculations, which were relatively simple once properly worked through.

"Asuka-san!"

By now, after an enthusiastic greeting every morning amongst separate occasions, Asuka was used to the green spandex wearing boy's reception. She glanced up from the text, sending Gai a quick smile before turning back down where she worked out different calculations. "Hello, Gai," she greeted.

"Working hard as usual, I see! The Power of Youth is surging through your veins!"

"If 'Power of Youth' is what I call motivation, then yes, I suppose it is," Asuka replied. She glanced at him, where he was diligently performing squat-jumps on the spot. "Would you like to take a seat, Gai? A small break before continuing, perhaps?"

Gai, by all means and purposes, wasn't actually as bad as Asuka had originally thought. She was still apprehensive around him, not particularly used to his special type of vigor, but once she actually managed to wheedle him into a calmer conversation, his company was actually somewhat bearable –more so than Kakashi, at the very least.

He flashed Asuka a grin before complying with Asuka's offer. "What motivates you so, Asuka-san? There is hardly a ninja as young as yourself that works hard like you have this past year!"

Asuka closed her text, using the stick that once held her dango as a bookmark, and hummed in thought. "Strength," Asuka revealed after a moment. "Personal enhancement. Beating Kakashi in a spar that doesn't involve words."

There was a brief moment where Gai frowned, but he didn't remain contemplative for too long. "Kakashi-san? I see! He invokes the Power of Youth in many, it seems! I myself have trained more after being inspired by Kakashi-san!"

"It's not so much as 'inspire' as 'wanting to bring an asshole down a couple notches,'" Asuka retorted blandly, her eyebrow twitching with slight irritation at the thought of Kakashi motivating her to do _anything_. Maybe he was, but she sure as hell didn't want to admit it.

There was that frown again. "Asuka-san, I do believe you must have met Kakashi-san at a painful time. He wasn't always as cruel, I believe that he has lost some of his youth on the way."

Asuka raised an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate on that, Gai?"

Much to her chagrin, Gai shook his head. "I apologize, Asuka-san. It is not my story or feelings to tell. If you keep trying, your youth should eventually coax him into revealing his story," at this, Gai flashed her The Pose again. "Now! After this lovely break I must return to completing three hundred laps around Konoha! Your motivation is welcome to participate!"

She was slightly irritated that Gai had brushed of her inquiring about Kakashi, but quickly realized that the boy wouldn't reveal anything without a permission of sorts. Asuka supposed it was an admirable trait, but it was aggravating at the moment. She glanced over his offer –a ridiculous amount of laps around the village– and was about to decline, when a thought had struck her. Gai's taijutsu was _fantastic_ and could possibly be up to par with Kakashi's. If she were to train with someone like Gai, then surely Asuka could bump herself up to a higher level.

Asuka quickly sealed her text into the scroll on her hip and stood up. "You know what? Yeah, I will join you."

It was difficult to keep up with Gai. Asuka often found herself having to stop short in each exercise before she completely dropped from exhaustion, and despite Gai being a genuine (although somewhat insane) person, he was absolutely _brutal_ in a spar. He had quickly taken up Asuka's offer to join her whilst training taijutsu with Kushina, who had approved of the idea with hopes to get Asuka used to fighting against different taijutsu styles. Asuka had quickly learned that abusing her chakra sense in a spar with Gai was a lifeline.

Training her raw chakra manipulation with Kushina and Taiki had also gone fairly well. The theory Kushina had suggested turned out to be the bridge between control, and Asuka had spent hours upon hours to practice manipulating the raw chakra to stand still and move rapidly simultaneously. Taiki's healing assistance was definitely needed during the sessions –much to his irritation– as Asuka often found herself adorning burns of different severity and size after attempting to control the blast each time. Eventually, though, she had managed to get the hang of the simultaneous rapid and still chakra sometime after she realized it was somewhat similar to the exercise of rubbing one's stomach while patting their head at the same time that preschool teachers would have the class do.

When she had first gotten it to more or less work, Asuka was completely dumbfounded. Not because it was absolutely burn-free –she could feel the pain licking her fingertips, but it wasn't too bad– and not because it was some euphoric all-powerful attack. If anything, it was somewhat disappointing, because it had painfully reminded Asuka of something she remembered seeing in a different anime her niece made her watch. It was annoying, because the controlled blast actually looked almost identical to that ridiculous attack from Dragon Ball Z.

Anime had never really been relevant to her life, even when she started down the track to ninja hood because she couldn't actually remember anything from _Naruto_ except for the word chakra, an orphaned protagonist named Naruto, and a person named Dara who was incredibly mad. But now, as Asuka stared down the remnants of her blast, an anime could never have been more relevant in her life.

"I think I know what to call it," Kushina and Asuka said at the same time, one tone excited, and the other tasteless. Taiki sighed from off to the side, knowing that an argument would soon follow.

Kushina took the lead. "It's an Energy Release!" she declared.

"Kamehameha," Asuka contrasted without further explanation. Surely it wasn't plagiarism if it was theoretically from different dimensions. She looked at Kushina, whose expression twisted into an unpleasant one.

"Asuka-chan, you can't just name it something gibberish," the redhead berated.

Asuka scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's my ability; I should be able to call it whatever I want. Besides, why should I call it 'Energy Release?'"

"Because that's the _logical_ thing to call it?" Kushina countered, with an equally fierce scowl and narrowed eyes. "It's literally a giant release of energy. Plus, that also leaves extra naming room for different variations you come up with."

"Kamehameha leaves extra naming room for different variations," Asuka argued. She belatedly registered Taiki's presence slowly inching away.

"But your name makes _no sense_!"

"It makes perfect sense." They were full on glaring at each other. "Karma is a bitch, and Irony likes the entertainment."

Kushina threw her arms into the air with exasperation. " _That_ makes no sense!"

Eventually, they mutually decided to call it Energy Release: Kamehameha.

~…~

The last assessment was set the day after the graduation test. Asuka had taken a rain check on the two hundred laps around Konoha while walking on her hands in celebration, recognizing the need to keep her body in top shape for the spar tomorrow. Unlike the last three, where it was just taijutsu, the last spar with Kakashi would be an all out fight with weapons, jutsu, exploding tags and the likes. It was designed specifically as a second exam to test Asuka's capabilities in the field, her capabilities as a ninja and to check how soon it would be before she would take up missions that were more dangerous.

It was a little frightening, to realize just how quickly a year had passed and just how much closer Asuka was to putting her life at risk on nearly a daily basis. Yet, at the same time she couldn't help but feel proud; smug at her newfound strength, her abilities, how quickly she had accomplished what would take a normal genin years to do.

She arrived at the training grounds much earlier than the designated time that morning, taking extra caution to check and re-check all of her supplies before leaving and upon arriving, before performing a quick warm-up to limber up her body. Once her body was warm and stretched, Asuka did the one thing that could truly calm her mind in her flash of nerves. She danced.

The beat to the silent song was a slow one.

Asuka stopped just as the sun was reaching the time where they would all be meeting. She had left a note for Kushina on the kitchen table with a small stack of pancakes (Asuka had discovered that Kushina rather enjoyed the western breakfast food) saying that she would be leaving early, and not to panic when she wasn't there when the redhead woke up.

With another quick glance at the sun, Asuka made haste to slap together a quick trap, placing it strategically in a tree that made it look obviously there without being blaringly so. The familiar chakras were approaching closer, and Asuka barely had enough time to jump into another tree before the group made their appearances.

It seemed that it wasn't just Kushina and Minato evaluating how the day went, seeing as both Hige and Taiki were trailing along behind them. Which, upon reflection, made sense that offering different opinions about her skill level would better her evaluation.

Kakashi, as per usual, did not look impressed. Asuka watched as he glanced at her haphazard trap through the corner of his eye, his chakra flaring in what actually might have been a scoff –if chakra _could_ scoff– and gave a visible eye roll. She smirked slightly, taking it as her cue to jump down from the tree she was currently perched in with a slightly frazzled appearance. Asuka glanced towards the group in the corner of her eye, painting her face to look like a caught child for a moment before washing it blank.

Hige was the only one who gave her a suspicious look, probably able to smell the deceit.

Instead of greeting Kushina, Minato, and Kakashi, she cast a glance over to Taiki and Hige with faux curiosity. "What are you guys doing here?" she questioned, eyeing Futaaimaru somewhat warily as the beast's tail started wagging. It was never a good sign when the giant fuzz ball's tail started wagging. Usually she ended up face down in the dirt.

"We were asked to participate by judging your final examination, Hitsugaya," Taiki supplied before Hige could cut in with some sort of sarcastic comment. The Inuzuka looked somewhat put out, but took it in stride.

"Yeah, it's always fun to watch your ass getting beaten."

Asuka leveled Hige with a dry stare. "Yeah," she commented tonelessly. "Let me just go grab some more ammonium, why don't I? Let's see how much fun you'll have then."

Hige's eyes narrowed.

"While this is great and all," Kakashi cut in with his bored tone. "I'd like to get this over with so I won't have to waste any more time with this brat."

Asuka shot him a look, which was promptly ignored. She then developed a sweet smile. "Of course, Kaka- _pyon_ , wouldn't want an old geezer like yourself to keel over from waiting too long."

They glared at each other.

Moments later, Kakashi and Asuka were standing directly across from each other, waiting for Minato's signal to begin the spar. Asuka spared a moment to tighten the new hitai-ate wrapped around her ponytail, making sure the small senbon pressed into it were still more or less held in place.

"Begin!"

Instead of charging right away like their normal taijutsu battles, Kakashi's fingers flew into a flurry of hand seals. Asuka couldn't catch any of them, but she felt the fluctuation of his chakra.

"Lightning Release: Lightening Hound!"

And then _holy fuck_ there was a beast as big as Futaaimaru charging at her made entirely of lightening. _Kushina had not prepared her for this_.

Which, in hindsight, might have been the point to test how Asuka would react in this sort of unfamiliar scenario.

She managed to dive to the side just in time for the sparking beast to singe the ends of her ponytail and a small patch of clothing on her bicep. Asuka quickly rolled up, charging towards Kakashi while whipping out several kunai to disrupt his next jutsu. It worked, because mid-hand seal, Kakashi had to whip out the short sword from its sheath attached to his back to knock the kunai away.

Where the hell did that tantō come from?

Asuka ducked under the swing of the blade, feeling the streak of chakra that followed the blade above her head. She punched towards his torso, swinging her heel stealthily to hook with his as he twisted his torso away from Asuka's fist, and then kicked her connected foot in front of her body to bright Kakashi's body to the ground. Asuka's hands tugged out several shuriken from her left hip pouch, shooting them at Kakashi while the chūnin rolled to recover from the fall. One of them nicked the hand that was holding the tantō, and Asuka fought the smirk that wanted to appear.

He stabbed at her leg, and she watched as the sword glowed white with the movement. Asuka quickly jumped up, swinging one of her legs into a kick towards Kakashi's head as he lifted himself up from the ground. She landed a hit on his shoulder as he moved his head out of the way, crouching as her feet met the ground again. Her back was facing him, so she flared the raw chakra around them to sense his movements.

She shot another volley of kunai towards him blindly from behind, in hopes to distract him from his next strike. The attempt was made in vain, judging by the fresh slash across her shoulder blade. Just as his blade finished the swing, Asuka jumped into a rotating kick while her arms simultaneously rose to grab the senbon lodged into her hitai-ate. Her heel met with Kakashi's arm-guard, and she pitched her weight forward onto him in an attempt to knock him unbalanced. She wasn't too deterred when his arm strength won over, and he tossed her off to the side before switching his tantō to his other hand.

Asuka slashed at the leg closest to her once she landed with the two senbon in her hand, luckily managing to tear a scratch through his pant leg. She flicked her wrists up to send the senbon towards his face as another distraction, only to be kicked in the stomach by Kakashi's other leg. She landed on her back with a grunt from the force.

Kakashi's blade glowed with electric chakra as it came down on her, slicing where Asuka's body was before she rolled out of the way and crackling sparks into the air. Kakashi's weight landed on her shoulder blades just a moment later, a twitchy, unsteady hand pressing somewhat torpidly into the gash from the tantō. His chakra jumped as he prepared for an attack, and Asuka forced herself to act before he landed a finishing blow. She dug one foot into the ground, using it to push the lower half of her body up as she kicked her other leg up in an arch. Her kicking leg collided with Kakashi's head, and he shifted his weight just enough for Asuka to use it as momentum to get herself back up from the ground.

She didn't wait to see what he was going to do, instead darting for the tree with her haphazard trap. Asuka sucked in greedy breaths of air as she observed what Kakashi would do next from her perch, as he was very much aware of the trap she had set. He didn't know that Asuka had deliberately set it up so obviously, and she prayed that the plan would work. If he didn't come to attack her because he didn't want to set off the trap, he was either going to become immobilized by the paralyzer surging into his veins from those nicks she had given him, or she would have to use her last resort. Asuka hoped the spar would end soon, because the gash on her shoulder blade was bleeding a lot heavier than she had originally assumed, and was already feeling lightheaded from both the lack of air, blood, and chakra from extensive enhancements. Her last resort was looking like an option for a quick finish.

The move Kakashi made wasn't something Asuka had anticipated.

He stabbed his tantō into the ground, using his good hand to reach into the pouch strapped onto his thigh to bring out a kunai. Then he dug the kunai into the small wounds on his hand and leg with an unperturbed expression.

He was bleeding out the paralyzer.

Asuka needed to move fast if she wanted to win.

She moved her wrists to face each other, fingers pointing away from the opposite digits into the classic Kamehameha stance, urging the raw chakra to gather together. It was slow moving, the still chakra jumping with her agitation. Kakashi wasn't going to let her have the time to prepare for this.

His bloodied kunai sailed through the air, forcing Asuka to halt gathering the natural energy to avoid the small weapon. She stopped too late, and let out a small cry as the kunai was lodged into the side of her stomach.

Kakashi's chakra was already gathering into his hands. It was at a sluggish pace, his bleeding hand was twitching and stiff, still numb from the paralyzer, but they were still moving into a series of hand seals.

Asuka once again manipulated the raw chakra in the air.

"Lightning Release: Lightening Hound!"

"Energy Release: Kamehameha!"

The energies clashed in a frenzy of chakra, leaving Asuka blind in both her senses and eyesight.

She didn't catch Kakashi appearing behind her; she just registered the pain in her temple before blacking out.

…

 **Thus concludes Asuka's Academy Arc. Things are going to be getting crazier for Asuka now that she's become a genin.**

 **So, we've met Gai (I hope that I've portrayed him well enough), had some more bonding (?If we can call it that?) with Kakashi, a little bit of insight on Asuka's mad training schedule as well as developing her kekkei genkai. And then the final exam spar (which I also hope was okay. Action scenes are difficult)  
**

 **A bit of a whirlwind, I think.**

 **I'm really excited about all the feedback from the new story preview from last chapter, and I will definitely be getting on the plotting stage with that one in between work and writing DS.**

 **Thank you all so much for the reviews/follows/favorites from the last chapter! I find it really motivating to read through all of the reviews when I'm in a bit of a block, and I love to hear what you guys think of the story so far.**

 **I promise I'll get on with replying to your guys' reviews tomorrow, but I really wanted to get this out before I went to bed!**

 **Anyways, see you all next chapter, and don't forget to leave a review telling me what you think ;)**


	10. Ninja Paranoia

"How does this not make sense?"

"How _does_ it make sense?!"

"This is literally the simplest thing other than storage seals."

"Yeah, well maybe you're just an awful sensei then."

"It's an _exploding tag_ , Asuka-chan. All you have to do is copy the calligraphy."

A low growl tickled Asuka's throat as she glared down at the small piece of paper. "Yeah, I get that, but I want to know _how_ fūinjutsu works. The inner workings, what makes it tick, the different combinations. It's how I learned at the apothecary –know how each plant works, what they contribute, what happens when you mix certain plants. Things are so much more complicated than copying and pasting, and I want to understand it all."

"Seals are a bit of a fickle thing, though," Kushina reiterated. With one look at Asuka's dubious expression, the redhead let out a sigh. She decided to take a different route. "Seals don't just have a one way that covers all. There are _thousands_ of different variations for different seals. Like this exploding tag, for example." Kushina snatched up the written example and placed it next to a blank paper. She grabbed a spare brush, and then placed the bristles against the blank paper. Her hand was incredibly smooth as she drew. "See how this one is different? This is what Konoha's standard exploding tag design is, whereas the one I'm drawing right now is from my village, Uzushio. Like these two villages, everyone has different variations of seals. People like to use different kanji, write it in a different way, and regarding more complicated sealing techniques; mix different types of seals."

Asuka studied the differences between Konoha and Uzushio's seals with a small frown tugging her lips. She knit her eyebrows together in thought. "Okay, and what about that seal you put on me when we first met? Would people mix different components if they tried to replicate it?"

Kushina hummed, tapping the end of the brush against her chin as she contemplated an answer. "It's hard for me to say, because the seal I put on you was made entirely from my own style. I used a mix of seals that made sense to me, and in a complete different style of writing. Like, with a normal chakra compression seal, it would block off your own chakra, and that wasn't what we needed, so I had to modify it to work against natural energy instead. And then I mixed it with a small protective seal to make it kind of invisible to your senses. I was targeting specifically for the natural energy, whereas others might add a regular chakra compression seal on top of a blocking _and_ protective seal, which would more or less make chakra almost nonexistent in general."

There was a pause as Asuka registered the information. Kushina continued.

"There are lots of different branches regarding fūinjutsu. Tags are the simplest, because the energy is set on the object you draw it on, and all you need to do is infuse chakra into it for activation." Kushina demonstrated by wrapping the Uzushio tag around one of her kunai, and tossing it at one of the trees in the distance. Asuka shut her eyes as the remnants of the explosion waved over to the part of the training grounds she and Kushina were sitting at. "There are seals that can be passed over from paper onto another object." Asuka watched as Kushina quickly drew out the design for a flash-bang seal. She then pressed the paper against the ground in front of them, and peeled it away like a temporary tattoo. "And then there are touch seals –which is fairly self explanatory. You simply touch the area you want the seal on, mold the chakra, and there it is. It's a bit more difficult to do, though, because your chakra movement needs to be precise otherwise it might mess up."

Kushina paused, to let the information simmer for a moment. "There's a lot more than this, though. Some people create their own brand of writing for seals –like Minato."

Asuka lifted the heel of her hands to rub her eyes. "Oh god it just never stops."

"You asked for it," Kushina commented wryly.

"I know," Asuka bemoaned. "But I didn't think it would be this…uuugh!"

Kushina snorted. "I guess this means a break is next. We'll continue our fūinjutsu lesson tomorrow, how about we work on your customized katas?"

"Yeah," Asuka nodded, shifting into a standing position. "My taijutsu can still use work."

Nearly a month had passed since Asuka's genin test, spent in a flurry of training and D-rank missions, with the occasional C-rank added in. She had been sore about yet another loss to Kakashi, whereas the boy in question was particularly unconcerned, bratty attitude and all.

"It only makes sense that someone as pathetic as you could never win against me," Kakashi scoffed, interrupting whatever Hige was going to criticize her for, perhaps ten minutes after she had woken up with a killer headache and sore body.

"Funny," Hige said instead, as Taiki continued to heal the gash across Asuka's back. His eyes glanced over at the boy's twitching hand. "Because you're still having difficulty moving."

Asuka's eyebrows shot up at Hige's defense of her, feeling particularly baffled in her bleary state.

"Don't give me that look, kid –I helped train you, I'm the only one allowed to insult you."

"You should really give other people the memo, then," Asuka grumbled to Hige, absentmindedly petting Futaaimaru's fur while his head rested in her lap.

"Please, it feels like I practically raised you," Hige added with a scoff, a sardonic tone taking over his voice. Asuka felt her lips twitch.

"Right after you kidnapped me, you mean," she retorted with an equally sarcastic tone. The Inuzuka and Hitsugaya shared a mutually amused look. "Sounds like a classic fairytale."

Rapunzel, if her memory served correct. Not the ninja would know it, though.

"You're never letting that go, are you?" Kushina butted in, with a raised eyebrow and amused expression. She was sitting against a tree a couple feet away, Minato by her side while he gave Kakashi a light lecture on being less of a rude bastard (not that the kid would ever listen to it). Asuka sent the redhead a look that clearly said she wouldn't, and the teen sighed. "Okay, moving onto more productive means; how do you think you did?"

Asuka frowned, giving a light hum as she sorted through her jumbled and fuzzy thoughts. Barely a second after, she felt Taiki's relaxing chakra seep into her head injury, coaxing her tangled mind to snap into a sharper perspective. With her head injury mostly out of the way, her previous judgments were easier to organize.

"Taijutsu and speed could always use work," Asuka started off. At this point, she didn't really feel a point to sugarcoating things for herself. "I was barely able to keep myself from getting an internal organ punctured –actually, I think I _did_ get an internal organ punctured with a kunai." Kakashi probably scoffed, but she ignored it. "Reaction time was awful –I need to utilize my sensing abilities more in battle– weapon usage could be improved as well. The use of jutsu fucked me over –thanks for that, Kaka- _pyon_ – and my one jutsu can definitely use work because it was obnoxiously slow –not to mention when Kamehameha and the lighting jutsu collided it completely intercepted the raw chakra in the air, which also fucked me up. The paralyzing agent didn't last long either, not to mention it was disappointingly easy to get rid of. I'll need to work on that on my own time."

"Anything else you want to nitpick there, kid?" Hige added in sarcastically once she had finished. Asuka shot the Inuzuka a scowl. He reached over and lightly tapped his knuckles against the side of her head. "Don't be so harsh on yourself. You've accomplished this much in just a little over _twelve months_ –it's taken other kids several years and a couple more to get to your current point. Relax a little."

Asuka's grip tightened just the slightest on Futaaimaru's fur, and she glared down at a patch of grass. "Relaxing isn't going to stop me from getting killed." _Again._ "And it isn't going to stop the fact that I'm not strong enough."

"You're not going to be working A or even B-rank missions until you become a chūnin," Taiki cut it, his warm chakra receding from Asuka's body as he shifted behind her. "I doubt you're going to be doing much C-ranks anytime soon, either. You've got no danger ahead of you."

It was silent for a moment, before Asuka dug into her kunai pouch and tossed one into the ground a little ways away for everyone to see. The bronze metal glinted in the early sunlight. Almost immediately, there was a shift in the surrounding ninjas' chakra. Curiosity, melancholy, guilt.

"No, I might not being doing intentionally dangerous missions anytime soon," Asuka agreed, her face going blank as she looked on at the weapon, her voice taking on a forced monotone as the flurry of unpleasant emotions hit her once again. Her initial trial of weakness was still as present in her mind as long as that kunai was with her. "But shit happens, doesn't it?"

…

 **Ninja Paranoia**

…

"Asuka-chan, wake up!"

There was a red monster excitedly banging on Asuka's door, and she wanted none of it. Gai had opted to join in taijutsu practice the night before, and he absolutely _tore_ her apart. The kid was an absolute beast, and definitely wasn't afraid to hold back. But that was why Asuka like to practice with him; she was able to hold onto a realistic perspective of her abilities. It helped her keep herself in check, all the while improving her capabilities.

Asuka gave an indistinguishable groan and shoved her head deeper into the pillow. She waited until Kushina's chakra had padded back into the kitchen before slowly coaxing her own chakra through the remaining stiffness in her muscles. After a couple of minutes, the caramel-haired girl managed to push herself from the bed to begin her morning rituals.

It wasn't long before Asuka had seated herself in front of the small stack of pancakes (over the past year, Kushina had very well demanded to know the recipe for the western breakfast –somehow it ended up being one of the most eaten foods between the two alongside ramen) dressed fully in her ninja gear. Her outfit wasn't necessarily aiming for a fashion statement; a fishnet T-shirt underneath a green surprisingly light yet sturdy tank top, with tan shorts over cropped fishnet pants. She had two pouches on her, one filled with her herbal concoctions inside a pouch strapped around her hips, her weapons in the pouch strapped along her thigh, and an extra scroll strapped around her back like a sword. Her forehead protector was wrapped around her ponytail, once again with small senbon secured through the material.

"So, I was thinking that today we'll do another C-rank mission," Kushina dropped a couple minutes into the meal. Asuka paused mid chew as several different emotions crashed through her body. Pride. Fear. Excitement.

"Really? What kind of mission were you thinking of?" Asuka prompted as she quickly gathered her bearings. It wasn't like she hadn't done C-ranks before, but they were all relatively simple and in the village. Part of her was wishing that they would become more difficult, rather than being called for detaining animals gone rabid by using a simple drowsy anesthesia from her arsenal.

"Something out of the village, I hope," Kushina replied with a slight hum. Over the course of the past year, Asuka had quickly learned that the redhead was eager to get out of Konoha on the chance she had time for a mission. Asuka suspected it had something to do with Kushina not being a native to Konoha, but she had no room to complain because Asuka was the same. With that being said, however, it was very rare for the Hokage to grant Kushina with an outside mission, for a reason that Asuka wasn't entirely aware of.

Breakfast was finished quickly, and Asuka soon found herself standing next to Kushina in front of the Hokage as he listed several C-rank missions. Those among the list weren't necessarily riveting, but there was potential in a few of them.

"We'll take the courier mission, Hokage-sama, 'ttebane!"

They were given a relatively large and heavy package, which Asuka had immediately sealed into the scroll strapped to her back once Kushina had handed it off to her. They weren't told of its contents, just of the village and person to deliver it to. It was a small village, located just along the outskirts of the border between the Land of Fire and the country Hidden Rain was located in, relatively close to the border that Hidden Grass resided in as well, perhaps a day or so of straight enhanced running, a little longer at a more relaxed pace, and to a man named Fujimoto Gorou.

By all means, it shouldn't have been a difficult mission.

The two bowed before they parting from the Mission Assignment Desk.

It didn't take long to pass though the gates, Asuka going through her mental checklist of supplies whilst doing so. She doubted that there would be much of an opportunity to use her more advanced and complicated concoctions –C-ranks were hardly anything to be amazed at in terms of ninja skills– but it was an unspoken mandatory must to always be prepared for the worst during a mission.

Running was a lot easier than Asuka had remembered, but the last time she had been running outside of Konoha was before her training had officially started, and since then she had often taken to racing with Gai around the village for a ridiculous set of laps –she lost every time, and it was only a couple months after her strange friendship with the eccentric boy that she realized that he was wearing _weights_ on his arms and legs– so Asuka found she was able to keep a constant pace without being too wrung out. They stopped only briefly a couple times for a quick snack and water break before continuing with their speedy pace in hopes to reach the designated village before dusk hit.

The town wasn't as grand as Konoha, but it wasn't nearly as dinky as Taiyō had been. It seemed fairly average, bustling with different businesses and establishments. It looked to have a certain focus for trading posts –something that Asuka thought was probably more beneficial considering its location between two separate countries, although she supposed that it could prove for a high enemy infiltration rate as well. Several inns were scattered throughout the town, strategically placed towards merchants looking for a night's rest.

She noticed that the small village felt somewhat similar to Konoha. Not necessarily in size or population, but there was just something circling around the air that gave of the familiarity of Konoha that Asuka had become well accustomed to in her year spent training. What made the village give off familiarity, though, Asuka wasn't entirely sure of.

She glanced curiously to Kushina, wondering if the redhead felt it too. Her sensei didn't show any inkling of it on her face, so Asuka hadn't mentioned her musings; simply opting to keep her senses open for caution.

Instead, she followed the redhead through the village streets somewhat aimlessly, paying no attention to the speculative looks from native civilians. It probably wasn't very often that ninja would visit.

"So, Asuka-chan," Kushina's voice pulled her from her musing. Asuka glanced up to the redhead, who was naturally scanning the village. Perhaps to take note of all the easily accessible entrances and exits –an observatory behavior that the academy was quick to teach to prepare for a possible ambush. "What do you think we should do next?"

Kushina had taken to not-so-subtly testing Asuka during their missions by leaving small decisions up to her. It was smart in the way that it allowed Kushina to properly gauge how Asuka's mind had developed towards the ninja attitude from her past year of training. In using this method, Asuka found herself sharpening her mind a little more under Kushina's veteran guidance. The only thing that annoyed Asuka was that she hadn't realized that her sensei was doing this until only a week ago.

Asuka glanced up at the sky, which had darkened considerably. In the back of her mind, she registered the fuzzy feeling of those larger chakra signatures moving about in a strange rotation. "Usually it would be best to pawn off the package right away, but I feel it would probably be a bit difficult to find the guy we need in the dark. So…find him tomorrow morning?"

She watched as her sensei slowly bobbed her head up and down. "Okay. Do we want to stay _inn_ or out?"

Asuka paused mid step and stared at her sensei. "Was…was that a pun?"

Kushina shrugged one shoulder. "Hey, I have to get _some_ form of amusement while away from the village."

"You mean while you're away from hubby?"

A death glare was shot towards Asuka, but the blush she had been looking forward to see was contained. Kushina clamped a hand down onto the base of Asuka's ponytail and pulled without gracing Asuka with an oral reply.

"Back to the topic at hand: inn or out?"

Asuka pondered on it for a moment. She never was particularly fond of camping. "Why not? Let's stay at an inn. They usually have restaurants in them, so at least we don't have to go searching for one."

"Okay," Kushina replied somewhat off beat. Asuka raised her eyebrow at the half-pause, but let it go.

It didn't take them long to find an inn that passed all of Kushina's requirements (enough exits, decent structure, isolated yet public –and on an non-ninja related need, good food) and book a room with double beds. The receptionist took one look at the forehead protectors with a mixed expression that Asuka couldn't distinguish before quickly handing off the keys for the room.

Asuka spared a glance to the receptionist before following Kushina closely up the steps to their room.

"How do you suppose we find the guy?" Asuka questioned casually as she stepped up the wooden steps. "Ask around?"

She caught the sight of Kushina's pursed lips when the redhead inclined her head back. "We'll talk when we get to our room. More privacy there."

Asuka looked around the small stairwell dubiously. "Who's around here to listen?" She flared her senses to prove her point, letting the raw chakra nip at her skin. Other than the civilian-sized chakras gathered in the restaurant downstairs and the receptionist's at the desk, the only other prominent signatures were the larger ones scattered throughout the village.

Kushina just let out a small hum, wordlessly indicating for Asuka to stay silent until they made it up to her room. The smaller of the two frowned, but complied nonetheless and waited until Kushina had placed enough protection and silence seals around the room to be satisfied.

"One of the most important rules when on a mission is to not talk about it unless you're absolutely positive that no one could _ever_ be possibly listening in," Kushina had started. "Even the smallest bits of information could be catastrophic if the wrong person was listening in. Ninja are capable of masking their identities entirely to conceal themselves from public, and small hearing enhancement jutsu are like child play."

"But this is just a C-rank mission," Asuka piped in. "It's not like those bandits when we first met, right? All we have to do is deliver the package to some guy."

Her redheaded sensei heaved out what sounding like a mildly frustrated sigh. "Yes, this may only be a C-rank, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be any less careful. It's like you said after your last spar with Kakashi-kun, isn't it? 'Shit happens.'"

"I –okay," Asuka conceded with a frown. She had say that hadn't she? "But I was alluding more towards getting mixed up into the business because of you."

Kushina let out another sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "And what happened, exactly, that got you mixed into this business? Debrief me on what you remember."

Asuka thought back to that stupid mission from more than a year ago. Frankly, she didn't actually remember the events explicitly. Her memory of entire mission started to lose itself into her past memories and current ones from Konoha.

"Well, you guys found me in the forest right? And started following me? You guys kept pestering me, Hige had a nice dose of ammonium up his nose, and then I was captured." Her frown deepened. What was the point of this? "The only reason those bandits took such an interest in me is because you were being such a loudmouth about becoming my teacher and they thought that I had some kind of talent–oh."

When Asuka had said that shit happens, she had been thinking in terms of her weakness, not caution.

"We were being perhaps a bit more careless than we should have been, yes," Kushina revealed. "Especially since those bandits were higher ranked than usual. But all of it applies the same, doesn't it?"

"It's like you guys have to be paranoid all the time then. That _sucks_."

The Uzumaki shrugged. "Yeah, it sucks a little, but in the end ninja paranoia saves our lives more often than not. That's why genin are slowly introduced into missions through small D and C-ranks. They gradually learn to be sharp and alert so it's not as fatal for larger missions."

Asuka grimaced. It certainly wasn't something that the academy taught –at least not with emphasis. Perhaps they should lessen the curriculum on which place a stab wound is likelier to kill a person, and more on caution.

"How about we get some dinner? Another tip for ninja paranoia is checking your food for poison. I think you should be pretty good at this one."

~…~

Dinner had been more or less uneventful. The inn's restaurant was moderately populated, not so much in foreigners, but Asuka noticed that there were quite a few native civilians dining as well. Seeing their triviality and obliged politeness made Asuka cringe, the scene reminded her heavily of the life back in Taiyō. She much preferred the isolation in Konoha to the exhaustion of having to stop and converse with every villager.

After finishing off the average meal, Asuka and Kushina went back to their room to retire for the night. They decided that a watch was still probably best since they were in foreign grounds ("Ninja paranoia, Asuka-chan. It never stops.") and so Asuka had opted to take the first watch shift.

"What's so important about this package anyways?" Asuka asked as she set up a spot on the floor to practice calligraphy. If she was going to stay up, she might as well be productive. She glanced over at the scroll leaning against the bedframe that the parcel had been sealed into. "Shouldn't we at least know…like the gist of it or something?"

Kushina didn't answer until she had finished taking off her extra pouches and clothing. "It's important, and _I_ know the gist of it."

Asuka's face twisted. "Why don't I get to know?"

Kushina assigned her with an unconcerned expression with a raised eyebrow. "Because I'm a jounin and you're a genin? I just taught you about watching what you say a couple hours ago, Asuka-chan."

"Fine then," Asuka relented with a grumpy pout. "I don't like it but I can understand where you're coming from."

"You don't like anything."

"I like knowing things."

Kushina snorted before tucking herself into one of the single beds. "Maybe when you're fully paranoid."

"All the more motivation," Asuka muttered sarcastically, although it fell on deaf ears. How Kushina gained the ability to fall asleep at will was baffling.

With a huff, Asuka turned to her ink and parchment.

The ninja life, in hindsight, was a lot heavier than she had originally assumed. Sure, children were lined up to be soldiers, but Asuka hadn't really realized the _extent_ that ninja societies went. It wasn't just being ordered to go kill or sabotage, there were so many little elements that piled up towards the desired goal. She didn't just need to learn to fight, to be strong; she needed to learn to monitor her words and actions. Being a ninja was just as much physical as it was mental.

Being a ninja, Asuka realized, was not a career. It was a lifestyle.

And that was honestly kind of frightening. Kushina had essentially stated that Asuka's life could always have a possibility of being in danger –a factor that she had been trying to overcome by _becoming a ninja_ – even when she wasn't out on a mission.

But Asuka also _liked_ the feeling of fighting someone, and she also liked the adrenaline and power rush that came with it. She liked feeling more in control of herself and her new life.

She really did get herself into a complicated situation.

After a pause in thought, Asuka realized that her brush had created a very unsightly ink blotch in the center of the parchment. She dropped a few choice swears as she lifted her brush and dropped it back into the inkwell.

Asuka sighed at the mess before disregarding it entirely. Obviously she wasn't in a focused state to properly practice her calligraphy, so it was better to stop before she made a mess of her entire ink and parchment set. They don't come cheap.

She hadn't bothered cleaning up the mess, instead standing up to walk over to the window to open for air. She was pleased to find that the window frame was large enough for her to sit on like she would occasionally in Taiyō, and allowed herself to bask in the fresh onslaught of raw chakra that nipped at her bare skin.

Asuka shifted to take off her weapons pouch, quietly easing it to the floor as to not wake up Kushina, and then moved to take of her herbal pouch from around her hips before something made her pause.

The circulation of chakra signatures had stopped. At that same moment, Asuka realized why this village had a familiarity with Konoha. Ninja commonly had larger chakra signatures than civilians, something she had grown very accustomed to feeling ever day.

Asuka barely had a chance to yell before the chakra signature on the roof dropped off and ninja wire cut into her skin, tugging her out of the window.

Ninja paranoia indeed.

 **...**

 **In which Asuka learns that ninja paranoia is a thing and that she desperately needs to learn it.**

 **Hi everyone. College, I have discovered, is very different from high school. I have been trying to swim out of this tank of piranhas known as schoolwork for a while now, and I should actually be working on a final assignment right now instead of updating.**

 **Oops.**

 **It has really been too long, and I'm super sorry, especially since I get updates of favorites and follows every once in a while still. I'm probably not going to get a chance to update again until my final exams are finished, so hopefully this will satisfy you guys for now.**

 **On the flip side, I will always be available if you guys have any questions for me.**

Please tell me what you think. A huge motivating factor is hearing about what you guys like/dislike, thoughts, theories, and questions. I know that kind of sounds conceited about wanting reviews but _every writer likes people telling them what they like about their stories._ Even if it's not me you review, please just think about reviewing people's work more. It really is a nice thing to see in your inbox.

 **Sorry that turned into a bit of a rant. See you guys next time!**


	11. Ninja Deception

Upon retrospect, Asuka found it very lucky that she wasn't killed right away. But then, she supposed, that the thin ninja wire digging into her skin paired with the severe nausea that came with a tag-along Body Flicker technique was almost comparable to death.

Well, maybe not death, but getting kidnapped a third time still sucked. At least she wasn't knocked out this time.

Wherever she was taken, it was dark, damp, and cold. When Asuka could pull together a coherent thought, she spent a couple seconds cursing herself for not thinking to scrutinize her surroundings properly both when she was getting taken and before. At least then she would have been able to form a very rough mental map as to where she was.

Asuka was really turning out to be some sorry excuse for a ninja. How disgusting. How infuriating.

She was not about to go down like this.

There were three of the ninja chakra signatures gathered inside what Asuka assumed was their base. When she expanded her senses, she found the other four still circling about. One of them seemed to be tailing Kushina's mass of chakra fairly closely, and judging by the flares from both it wouldn't be long before they engaged into battle. And if Asuka were to guess by their distance between the base, she assumed that she was still somewhere in the village.

The next step was to analyze her immediate situation. Ninja wire was wrapped around her wrists all the way up to her biceps, uncomfortable tight behind her back. The situation was the same with her legs. When she tried to move her arms she found that even with the slightest of movement, the wire would slice into her skin. But that alone was worth it when she found that her herbal pouch was still attached to her hips.

A very vague plan started to form in her head.

Ninja wire, above all things that made it very useful and lethal, was still a wire. And every wire was made from some sort of metal. Metal melts with heat. If she could heat the raw chakra around the wires high enough then she would be able to use whatever concoctions she had stocked up in her pouch.

The hardest thing, though, would be to do so without alerting the other three ninja. They were obviously more experienced –more dangerous– than those bandits had been. And while those bandits had high numbers, they also weren't as well trained. That didn't even count in the factor that these ninja had abducted Asuka for a reason.

Regardless, it was necessary for Asuka to get out of her bindings.

She resisted the urge to wince as a warm sticky liquid trickled down her arms as Asuka rotated her wrists to beckon the raw chakra in the air. The first thing she would do when she returned to Konoha was work on manipulating raw chakra without any arm movements. The familiar heat was comforting, though, especially when those two of the three chakra signatures started to approach Asuka. The dim light that it emitted, however, was not as welcomed.

Asuka pressed her back further against the wall in hopes to mask the raw chakra.

The two ninja kept a distance away from Asuka at first. The darkness of the room shadowed their forms, but she had managed to catch a glint of the foreign forehead protectors wrapped around their heads from the sliver of moonlight that escaped into the base.

The symbol looked to match Hidden Rock.

She quickly followed the trail of moonlight with her eyes, locating a window covered haphazardly with curtains.

"Where is it?" one of them –a male?– demanded.

She assumed they were talking about the package, but what could seven Iwa ninja need with a C-ranked package? Either way, she needed to keep them talking until the ninja wire melted so she could get back to Kushina. There was a mess of chakra secreting from her redheaded sensei's area, and it looked like the other three ninja were helping the third engage with Kushina. That essentially left Asuka on her own.

"Where is what?" she asked in her best confused-little-girl voice. Deception, as chancy it was with veteran ninjas, was the best she could try for at the moment. She knew from experience that her smart-assed mouth would most likely end up getting her killed.

But, what wouldn't get you killed in ninja-hood?

" _Don't_ act stupid, you little shit," another voice hissed. It sounded a little more feminine, but she couldn't be too sure. "Do you think we're imbeciles? For all we know, you can be another Hatake brat."

Asuka resisted the urge to grimace. She never wanted to be compared to the likes of him.

And what the fuck was so great about that bastard anyways? She knew the kid was strong, but for some random Iwa ninja to know about him enough to completely disregard her attempt at a cover? She was going to kick him when she returned to Konoha.

The raw chakra was getting hot against the sensitive skin on her forearms. Asuka could feel the wire soften and bend easier with her movements. It would only take a couple more minutes for the metal to start melting. Then she would have to get started on the wire around her legs, which should take shorter since the energy was already heated.

The first ninja spoke again, taking a threatening step forward. A kunai was suddenly in his hand, and Asuka took a breath to calm her jumping heart. "We're not into games. Now, what is the package that Konoha deemed so important that it needed ninja escorts?"

Asuka could feel her skin burning from the heat. She slowly swallowed as the melted metal dripped onto her bare forearms. In a couple of seconds, she could start working on the wire against her legs.

"I don't know what the package is," Asuka admitted lowly. What was the trick to lying? Lie by telling the truth?

The kunai in the man's hand found a home into Asuka's right shoulder. She screamed, and her body convulsed. The heat from the raw chakra intensified briefly.

"Don't fuck with me, kid." There was another kunai in his hand.

"I –no one told me. It's just supposed to be a C-rank," she said. Kushina was only fighting two foreign chakras now, but seemed to have wandered farther away due to the battle. "Why –why does it matter? I don't understand."

The more feminine of the two sneered, but there wasn't another kunai in Asuka's shoulder yet. And then the feminine one barked out a laugh. "You're either a great liar, or you _really_ don't know. Just how _blind_ does Konoha send out its troops?"

What?

"And since you don't know anything beneficial," the Iwa ninja continued. Asuka reached one hand into her herbal pouch, feeling uneasy about what would come out next. "Your existence is no longer necessary."

Asuka pulled her hand out of her pouch and slammed the object onto the floor. It exploded into a cloud of red.

…

 **Ninja Deception**

…

Her eyes absolutely stung. It was the downside to a chakra-enhanced chili pepper bomb –an idea spurred from the ammonia incident with Hige and Futaaimaru– that _she_ was also affected. Asuka would have to rely on her heightened senses to get out of this mess.

She squeezed her eyes shut and rolled to the side, only moments before she heard a clang of what surely would have been a kunai into some important organ. Asuka could hear grunts of pain from the three Iwa ninja, but she couldn't assume that they were incapacitated from just the chili peppers.

Asuka supposed that she was fairly lucky that there was a kunai embedded into her shoulder, because it gave her a weapon.

"Where did that little bitch go?"

"Hibiki, guard the door!"

Hibiki must have been the third one that hadn't approached to interrogate her. It was just as well, because Asuka wasn't even aiming for the door.

She dashed towards the direction she remembered the window to be in, all thoughts to make her footsteps quiet forgone to the need to escape. Asuka managed to duck in time to avoid a punch to the head by one of the ninja who must have heard her footsteps, and stopped only long enough to jam and inject a needle of sedative into where Asuka presumed was the Iwa ninja's neck.

When Asuka managed to locate the window, the flat of her hand rammed into a pane of glass. She bit her tongue to avoid crying out as her hands pulled the kunai out of her shoulder, ignoring the fresh layer of warm blood on her clothing, and rammed the ring-end of the knife into the glass.

She didn't waste any time to leap out of the window.

The fall was longer than she assumed. Nerves in her legs flared from the shock impact, but Asuka kept running. She ran towards Kushina, who seemed to just be finishing up her last opponent.

The three Iwa ninja she had left in their base were moving around, surely to follow after her, but thankfully at a much slower pace. They must not have been sensory types.

 _What the hell was happening?_

She had to find Kushina. Kushina had to know what this meant. Kushina had to know what the Iwa ninja meant by sending in troops blind.

The tears from the chili peppers had dried on Asuka's face –which had initially helped to sooth the burn– and felt cold against the wind as she ran. She didn't let herself think about how her entire body ransacked with pain with each step, she needed to get to Kushina, to safety.

Bandits were one thing, but fully trained ninja? Asuka couldn't even win in a spar against Kakashi or Gai. This was a fight she didn't want to only be equipped with chili bombs

Thankfully, Kushina had found Asuka fairly quickly. The sting from the chili pepper bomb was beginning to wear off somewhat. At that point, Asuka could open her eyes for a short amount of time –enough to catch Kushina's mixed expression that she couldn't quite care to dissect at the moment– before having to shut them again. At least _that_ pain was starting to subside. Asuka hadn't had a chance to study all of the different burns from the raw chakra and melted metal, the cuts from the ninja wire, and her stab wound.

"There were three of them," Asuka rushed out as she felt Kushina's familiar and warm hands reassuringly hold onto her shoulders. "They…they don't seem to be coming towards us and –and I hit one with a sedative, but –"

Asuka paused, stretching her senses out.

"They're heading out of Fire Country, towards the border. I don't understand."

Kushina placed a hand on top of Asuka's head. "Then don't worry about it. They're gone now, Asuka-chan. We should tend to your injuries before they get infected."

"I –okay. Okay," Asuka slowly nodded. Kushina knows more in this context, she could trust Kushina.

So she let Kushina lead her back to their room at the inn. It felt somewhat like a blur from that point onward. Asuka could remember handing Kushina the emergency antibacterial ointment from her herbal pouch, and mechanically moving her body when Kushina needed a better angle to tend to her wounds, but she couldn't remember feeling any emotions or conversation that may have taken place. She let Kushina guide her to the unused bed after changing into fresh clothes, and be tucked in like a mother would to her child, or an older sister to the younger.

Everything felt so surreal.

Asuka couldn't remember falling asleep, but her body felt incredibly sore when she woke up. There were two trays of food set onto the table, both untouched, and Kushina's chakra was close.

It took a moment before the events from last night –or a couple hours ago, judging by the light from the window– returned into Asuka's mind.

Nothing had changed, really, since Asuka had decided to become a ninja. She had still been kidnapped, wounded, and essentially useless. She had inadvertently led those Iwa ninja _to_ her by being so naïve.

But she didn't bother thinking over those facts too much. Frankly, Asuka felt too exhausted for an extended amount of self-loathing at this point. There was one thing, though, that had stuck into her mind.

What had that Iwa ninja meant by Konoha sending her in blind?

The mission was a C-rank –a simple take package to place, find person, and drop it off– so why had they been attacked like that? What had they known that Asuka hadn't?

"Asuka-chan? Do you want to sleep a little longer?" Kushina asked after Asuka had pushed herself out of bed. Concern was evident in the redhead's eyes.

Asuka shook her head as a reply. Honestly, the sooner they left this village the better she would feel.

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Kushina seemed to sense Asuka's mood and respected it well enough to keep silent. Asuka was grateful, because she wasn't sure how much more she would be able to handle before she snapped. So much had happened over the time span of a couple hours, and with what that Iwa ninja had said, she just had too much on her mind for conversation.

Kushina suggested that they go find Fujimoto Gorou, the man the package was intended for, and then head back to Konoha straight afterwards. Asuka definitely wasn't opposed to it.

They found his house fast enough. The address was on the mission information scroll Kushina was given at the Mission Assignment Desk, so Asuka followed quietly as Kushina weaved through the village towards the desired home.

The merchant seemed happy enough to get his package –a set of some sort of civilian advertised utility seals that Asuka wasn't too sure what they were useful for– and it wasn't long before the pair were heading back to Konoha.

Kushina insisted on running a little slower as to not bother Asuka's wounds too much until she could see a proper medic. As useful as the herbal ointment was for holding back infection and soothing small cuts, it wasn't necessarily intended for the larger injuries. It definitely didn't heal as fast as a Mystical Palm jutsu, either.

Despite the slower return, they made it back into Konoha within the last hour of daylight. The chūnin on guard at the gates had given Asuka a mildly concerned look at her mummified body, but she hardly gave him much of a reaction. She just wanted this mission to be shoved deep into the confines of her mind and never mentioned again.

"Maybe visit the hospital before the debrief?" the chūnin suggested as Kushina and Asuka passed through the gate.

Asuka merely shook her head at Kushina's questioning look. Hospitals were not something she was fond of, something derived from all those visits in her past life, so she would probably go see Taiki after they explain what happened on their mission to the Hokage. Hopefully she would find out why it went so wayward, too.

The wait to enter the Hokage's office didn't take too long. Asuka had quickly shuffled into the room after Kushina, and stopped next to the redhead. Funny, how it had only been about a day since she had last seen the old leader of Konoha, yet it had felt like a week.

Asuka let Kushina explain what happened from the point they left up until when Kushina and Asuka had met up again after being separated. Asuka wasn't too surprised with Kushina's side of the story after she was kidnapped –she had practically monitored the redhead's fights with the four enemy ninja– and was somewhat relieved when it was mentioned that those four were all dead. Asuka's attackers, however, had escaped.

After Kushina's debrief, the Hokage took a drag from his pipe before turning his jaded gaze onto Asuka.

"What happened after you were taken?" he inquired, although it felt more like a demand.

And so Asuka explained. She told him that she was taken to what she assumed was their base, and that the remaining three Iwa ninja had tied her up for interrogation. She mentioned how she had managed to escape by burning through the wires and using the chili bomb as a distraction, before finally talking about what she was interrogated about after the Hokage's insistence.

"All they really mentioned was that the package was something important," Asuka told him. She deliberately left out the 'going in blind' part. She still wasn't sure what to make out of it. "Why did they think that?"

The Hokage took another puff from his pipe. His eyes regarded her silently, he probably knew that Asuka hadn't told him everything they had said.

"There was another mission around that area," the old man finally confided. "The infiltrators must have confused your mission for theirs. It is unfortunate that those were the circumstances, but I am grateful that neither of you are harmed _too_ irrevocably. I suppose that this mission will need an upgrade in rank. You will be compensated accordingly."

Asuka nodded along with Kushina. She picked up a foot, anticipating their dismissal.

"Is there anything else either of you forgot to mention?" the Hokage asked.

Kushina shook her head, but Asuka hesitated. Kakashi was a dick, but he deserved some forewarning that the enemy ninja knew about him, right?

"They mentioned Hatake Kakashi in passing –not any major context. Just that they knew of him," Asuka said. She shrugged her uninjured shoulder, nose scrunching up. "Not that I really care what happens to him, but probably best if someone knew."

The Hokage nodded, and then dismissed them.

"Hospital now," Kushina said when they exited the Hokage Tower. Asuka followed compliantly.

The sun had gone down by the time Kushina and Asuka had ventured into the streets. The village streets were fairly unpopulated by that time of night, so the walk was undisturbed.

"Asuka-chan, I'm sorry," Kushina blurted out a couple minutes into the silence. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

Asuka paused in her next step. _Sent in blind_. Had those two missions purposely coincided? Did the Hokage purposefully send them out into the same area as the _more important_ mission as some form of decoy?

God, Asuka _knew_ that ninja had be some kind of devious, but to deliberately send in an inexperienced genin onto a potential _death mission_? All for the purpose of what? To sneak something past those bastards that could have very well murdered her undetected? And to feel absolutely no remorse in doing so?

And Kushina…She didn't seem surprised during the debrief. Not about the kidnapping.

"You," Asuka managed out between her rushed and mangled thoughts. She looked up to Kushina with disbelief. "You _knew_."

There was a pause before Kushina said anything. "It was mentioned on the mission scroll, yes."

"And you didn't fucking think to _tell me_?" Asuka exploded. Everything that she had been suppressing since the attack came out in a mess of rage. "You fucking knew that we were being used as a decoy against enemy ninja and didn't think once to even _mention_ to me that I was in danger?"

"We weren't supposed to be separated like that. There was a chance that nothing would happen, and I would be there if something did!" Kushina defended hotly.

"That doesn't mean anything!" Asuka spat. "I could have been prepared, Kushina! I was already weaponless, and I was about to take off my herbal pouch just before they had taken me. I would have fucking died." _Again_ caught on her tongue before she could spew it out. Asuka definitely wasn't going to blurt out her biggest secret like that. Especially not to Kushina.

"I would have been there!"

"No, you wouldn't have because you were all the way on the other side of the village fighting off their comrades! You kept something this important to yourself and just let me talk off about our mission to turn their attention onto us!"

Kushina could have winced, but Asuka was too far deep into her anger to care or notice.

"I had the situation planned and handled! I'm your sensei, you're supposed to trust me!" Kushina shouted.

Asuka laughed. "Trust _you_?" she hissed. "How am I supposed to trust you if you don't trust me?"

Kushina fell silent. Asuka continued.

"The facts are: you deliberately left me blind in a life-threatening situation. There is nothing that can change that," she sneered. "You've tricked and lied to me. And who knows what else you've been keeping from me. Did I even have a choice about becoming a ninja or not? Were _you_ using those bandits as an excuse to fucking recruit me into this shitty lifestyle?"

It probably wasn't the best idea to be having this debacle in the middle of the street, as deserted as it was. Who knows how many people are actually listening in?

"Do you even fucking care about being my teacher at all?" Asuka barreled on.

Kushina actually did wince at that. Good, Asuka thought vindictively.

"Of course I do, Asuka-chan," Kushina replied, her voice much calmer than before.

Asuka scoffed. "What a way of showing it, then. Shitty teaching suits a shitty person."

At this point, Asuka didn't care what she said. As long as it hurt Kushina, it was fine by her. This situation was not something she could let off so easily. After finally being able to live a healthy life, where she could do what she wanted, Kushina had to barge in and fuck it all up.

"Asuka-chan," Kushina's voice said softly, a definite layer of hurt in there. The redhead reached a hand out to Asuka, but she slapped it away before it could get too close.

"Don't fucking touch me," Asuka said, glaring up at her teacher –old teacher, shitty teacher, whatever– with venom. She took a step back, and another to get away from the redhead. "Don't talk to me. Leave me alone for once in your goddamn life."

And with that, Asuka swiveled on her heel and stalked off into Konoha's moonlit streets.

…

 **Should be studying. Oopsies.**

 **SomeRandomPerson:** thank you! College, while kind of fun, still takes a lot of work. I'll need that luck :P

 **Thanks to all those who reviewed! It means a lot, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If anyone has any questions about character, plot, or little mistakes or confusing points in the story, feel free to ask. I would love to answer them the best I can without spoiling anything.**

 **So what did you think about the mission's hidden purpose? About Asuka's reaction to it? Who do you want to see more within these next few chapters?**


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